Bank holiday rail services
Transport Secretary welcomes industry work on bank holiday rail services
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has welcomed the news that the rail industry will be keeping more trains running this August bank holiday weekend.
A total of 49,903 trains will be carrying an expected 5 million rail passengers to destinations across the country - 1,700 more trains than were operational during last year’s bank holiday.
Network Rail’s engineering teams will still be out working hard to deliver the vital improvements to the railways over the holiday weekend, but 95% of normal train services will be running.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said:
Bank holiday weekends are always a busy time to travel, but a great deal is being done to ensure that travellers get to their destinations as smoothly as possible.
While Network Rail will be carrying out important improvement works in some areas, 95% of normal train services will be running this weekend which is around 1,700 more trains than ran last August bank holiday.
Of course everyone should still allow plenty of time for their journeys and plan well in advance, but a lot of work is going into keeping Britain moving this weekend.
In spite of intense pressure on the public finances the government is undertaking one of the biggest programmes of rail improvements since the Victorian era. These include a green-light for Crossrail, Thameslink and a programme of additional carriages for our most rail crowded lines.
For most travellers there should be no disruption because of the improvement works. But, as always, travellers should check with their train operator or national rail enquiries before they travel.
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