Bedfordians wanting to take a trip to the capital this weekend will continue to face disruption as improvements to the Midland Main Line advance into a third week.
Work to the train line between Bedford and London are due to take place for a total of nine weeks, and are due to be completed by “early June”.
Passengers with Thameslink and East Midlands Railway will need to take buses between Luton and Hitchin for onward journeys into London, so are advised to plan ahead and leave more time for their journey.
Over this weekend, Network Rail engineers will be improving the signalling at Harpenden Junction, and making more progress on the new station at Wixams and SEGRO’s Radlett Strategic Freight Interchange in Hertfordshire.
Meanwhile, work continues to the Midland Main Line overhead line OLE125 project, allowing bi-mode trains to travel at up to 125mph between London and Bedford.
Work to upgrade the track and overhead power lines is almost two-thirds done, and remains on track for completion this summer.
Rail replacement buses
Jenny Saunders, Customer Service Director for Thameslink said, “These upgrades will bring about big change on the Midland Main Line from London to Bedford – but for this to happen, passengers will experience some disruption on weekends while engineers are hard at work.
“I’d like to thank people for their patience while these works are ongoing and apologise to those who may need to change plans because of this.
“We’ll have staff up and down the network ready to support you on your travels, but the most important message is to check before you leave for your journey, using the Thameslink website.”
Philippa Cresswell, customer service director for East Midlands Railway, said: “We recommend customers planning to travel to or from London over numerous weekends between now and June to check their journey in advance of travelling.
“Information about changes for each weekend will be available on the EMR website.
“Along with the improvement works, there are also several sporting events across the EMR network on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 March and we are expecting services to be busy.
“We would like to thank our customers for their patience whilst Network Rail upgrade the overhead power lines. This work will greatly benefit our customers in the future with more reliable journeys to and from London.”
Rail replacement bus services are running while work takes place.
Passengers are urged to plan ahead and check www.nationalrail.co.uk before travelling.
