Engineering work affects rail services over May Day weekend

Network Rail is carrying out the work as part of an £81 million investment to improve reliability and punctuality on the West Coast Main Line.

Passengers using Virgin trains travelling south from the West Midlands are being urged to avoid the line if they want to go beyond Milton Keynes Central on May 3 and Rugby on May 4.

Phil Bearpark, operations and customer service director for Virgin Trains, said: "We are aware that many customers will be affected by the May Day bank holiday closure and we have made arrangements with a number of operators to ensure customers can continue to travel to and from London should they need to."

Dyan Crowther, route managing director for Network Rail added: "This scheme represents significant investment in the southern end of the West Coast Main Line to improve punctuality and make the railway more reliable.

"This line has seen tremendous growth in traffic and passengers over the last five years with the section at Watford being one of the most intensively used, high-speed sections of track in the UK. This work is absolutely essential to maintain reliable train services for the thousands of passengers who travel on this route every day."

All London Midland services will terminate at Hemel Hempstead during the weekend. Barrie Cottam, London Midland's Head of Route for West Coast Mainline services said, "We apologise in advance to our customers for the disruption they will face while these essential works are carried out. London Midland will operate rail replacement services whilst this section of the West Coast Mainline is closed. This will involve coach transfers which will take longer than the normal journey time by rail.

"I urge passengers to check and plan their journey arrangements in advance before travelling."