Doncaster rail passengers in 'do not travel to London' warning this weekend

No trains will be able to call at London King’s Cross this weekend as work continues on the East Coast Upgrade.

The £1.2billion project will allow for faster, more frequent services, providing passengers with 10,000 extra seats on long distance services per day. It will also improve the reliability of services.

Over the weekend, Network Rail engineers will test new signalling equipment at Stevenage station as part of work to construct a new platform there, which will allow more train services to run. The testing of the signalling system can only be done safely when no trains are running, so the line between Peterborough and London King's Cross will be closed.

Passengers are urged not to travel to or from London King’s Cross station on either Saturday, 29 February or Sunday, 1 March. Passengers are advised to travel on either Friday, 28 February or Monday, 2 March, however those travelling on these days should book in advance and reserve a seat where possible, as these services are expected to be exceptionally busy.

If passengers absolutely must travel over the weekend, they should allow significantly more time for their journey, as they will need to use the limited bus replacement services or alternative routes, which will be very busy.

The project will now not impact on passengers again until 20/21 June.

Ed Akers of Network Rail, said: “We know that there have been numerous changes to services to and from London this year and we apologise for any inconvenience which this has caused.

“We understand that there is never a good time carry out upgrade work on this scale. The work taking place on Saturday and Sunday is absolutely vital to move the scheme forward and we would urge passengers not to travel to and from London on the affected routes this weekend.

A spokesman for train operators along the route, said: “We urge passengers to follow the travel advice issued and not to travel to or from London this weekend.”