Rail works due over bank holiday

Network Rail will be carrying out electrification work in Chorley over the bank holiday weekend and is warning passengers between Preston and Manchester to check before they travel.

As part of a £30m bank holiday investment in nearly 1,000 individual projects, Network Rail will be working on programmes along the West Coast main line route between Hertfordshire and Lancashire to help provide passengers with a better, more reliable railway.

In Lancashire the work to electrify the railway through Chorley moves on apace with a subway roof being replaced and upgrade work to platforms and track. This work will enable overhead power lines to be installed in the area which will help provide a better service for passengers from December 2017. The work will be carried out between the early hours of Saturday 27 August and the start of services on Tuesday 30 August and means buses will replace trains between Preston and Manchester during that time.

In the South, between Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey work will take place to improve drainage along the line and will see buses replace trains between the two stations on the Saturday and Sunday.

In the Midlands, bridge improvement work on the A453 Tamworth Road between Four Oaks and Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham will mean buses replace trains between Lichfield and Aston on Sunday until mid-afternoon.