Rail passengers advised to prepare for engineering works on MK-London line at Easter

Rail passengers have been advised to prepare for engineering works on the route between Milton Keynes and London at Easter.

Major upgrades are taking place on multiple points of the West Coast Main Line, with one noteworthy area including the outright closure of London Euston train station between Easter Saturday (19th April) and Easter Monday (21st April).

The closure means that no trains will be in operation between Milton Keynes Central and London Euston on these three days, with only a limited service running through to Euston on Good Friday (18th April).

Avanti West Coast have said their operations will see buses run between the station and Bedford, from where passengers can catch further trains to London.

Avanti will be running limited services from Milton Keynes to Manchester, Liverpool and Carlisle on the Saturday and Monday. The Liverpool service won’t run on the Sunday as engineering works closes the route between Crewe and Liverpool Lime Street.

Passengers heading northwards are advised that on these three dates, further engineering works means no trains are running beyond Carlisle, with buses taking passengers onwards to Glasgow or Edinburgh.

London Northwestern Railway will be running limited services between Watford Junction and Milton Keynes Central, along with further services from Milton Keynes Central to Crewe and Birmingham New Street. As well as the Bedford to MK bus, there will also be limited buses in operation between Watford and Potters Bar to connect with services to Central London.

Network Rail’s head of Euston station operations, Amanda Webster-Uz said in a statement, “There’s a lot of great work happening over the Easter bank holiday to improve the reliability and safety of the railway for passengers and freight. We know some of this will be disruptive, but bank holidays remain the least busy time for carrying out complex upgrades.

“I’d like to urge passengers to plan ahead at www.nationalrail.co.uk/spring and recommend those planning journeys to or from London Euston, travel either side of the Easter weekend to avoid longer journeys and some bus replacement services.”