There will be number of changes to London Midland services throughout the Bank Holiday weekend of 23-25 August, and in the days immediately afterwards, as Network Rail continues its improvements to the railway.
The work is part of an £9 billion upgrade which will allow faster and more frequent services to London on the West Coast Mainline for all rail passengers.
- Engineering work between Hednesford and Rugeley means that buses will replace trains between Hednesford and Rugeley Trent Valley/Stafford. Trains will run between Birmingham New Street and Hednesford.
- There will be no trains between Rugby and Stafford/Stoke on Trent (via Nuneaton and Lichfield Trent Valley) from 23rd August to 8 September, including throughout the Bank Holiday weekend.
- Buses will replace trains on the above route between Stafford and Nuneaton and also between Coventry and Nuneaton between 23 August and 8 September.
- Other services will be diverted via the West Midlands, due to the Rugby - Stafford engineering work on the West Coast Mainline.
- London Midland will be running reduced services on the Cross City Line between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley from 23 August to 8 September.
- The Walsall - Wolverhampton service will operate an extremely limited timetable between Sunday, 24 August to Friday 29 August due to engineering work.
- London Midland will operate an amended timetable for trains between Birmingham New Street and London Euston, between Sunday, 24 August and Sunday 7 September, including buses replacing trains between Coventry and Northampton between Saturday, 23 August to Friday, 5 September inclusive. More details are available at www.londonmidland.com
- On Bank Holiday Monday, 25 August, a number of services will not run between Birmingham New Street and Worcester Shrub Hill/Great Malvern throughout the day (for more details look under the engineering section at http://www.londonmidland.com/)
- Passengers are advised to allow more time for their journeys and check details in advance with National Rail Enquiries, Telephone: 0845 7 48 49 50, or via http://www.londonmidland.com/ even if their journey is not along the ‘Trent Valley' routes described above
All of these changes are to accommodate a fortnight of concerted engineering work being undertaken by Network Rail.
This covers seven major locations covering 130 miles of the West Coast Mainline between London, the Midlands and the North West. Network Rail will be installing new track, new points, a new subway, new signalling and refurbishing a 450m viaduct.
Details of the bus replacement timetable are on the London Midland website (http://www.londonmidland.com/) and available through online booking services.
London Midland's operations director Andy Thomas said: "The latest rail improvement works are part of an almost £9 billion investment to deliver better rail services.
"In the meantime, our passengers may face some disruption to their journeys. We don't take this lightly, and are working in partnership with both Network rail and other train operators to keep disruption to a minimum and keep passengers informed about changes to their journeys, along with the ultimate benefits of this work."
Passengers can find out more about London Midland services from http://www.londonmidland.com/, or from National Rail Enquiries on 0845 7 48 49 50, at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/. They are strongly advised to check details of their journey in advance.
