Railway misery over Bank Holiday Weekend

People queue for replacement buses at Carlisle Station in April. Credit: ITV Border

Commuters in Cumbria and the south of Scotland face major railway delays across the Bank Holiday Weekend.

Network Rail engineers will be working on the West Coast main line at Oxenholme and on the Windermere branch line at 5.15am on Saturday 28 May.

The lines will reopen at midday on Monday 30 May.

The work is part of a scheme to replace track and improve the layout through Oxenholme station.

  • Will your journey be affected?

Bus replacement services will run between the following stations.

  • Warrington and Glasgow

  • Crewe and Preston

  • Preston and Lancaster

  • Lancaster and Carlisle

  • Carlisle and Glasgow Central / Edinburgh

  • Along the Windermere branch line

  • Carlisle and Maryport

Caledonian Sleeper trains will be diverted between Motherwell and London Euston and will not call at Carlisle, Preston, Crewe or Watford Junction.

Virgin Trains will not operate north of Wigan.

  • Why is the engineering work taking place?

Network Rail says there is "never an ideal time to close the railway", but that Bank Holidays are "typically quieter".

They say the work at Oxenholme will lead to "more reliable services in the future".

Network Rail says £30 million is being invested in the nation's railways over the three-day period.

Improvements at Oxenholme will continue at night times and other times when trains are not running until the end of August.