PASSENGERS are being advised to check before they travel over the May Day bank holiday period as Network Rail carries out upgrades to improve many parts of the railway. An army of 14,000 track workers will be deployed around the country undertaking projects costing some £50 million.

Major worksites include Glasgow, Crewe, Stafford and several locations in Greater London – but Network Rail says 95 per cent of the rail system will be unaffected.

The main locations will be at Slough and Stratford for Crossrail, at London Waterloo on the station throat, at Wolverhampton, Stafford and Crewe on the West Coast Main Line, and in the Glasgow area at Motherwell, Newton and Carstairs.

The £6.5 billion Thameslink Programme is also continuing. As a result, major work around London Bridge means there will be no trains to Charing Cross or Waterloo East from Saturday, May 2 to Monday, May 4, and Cannon Street and London Bridge’s high level platforms (numbers 1-3) will also be closed to trains on Saturday and Sunday.

Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne said: “Our improvement programme this bank holiday, delivered by a 14,000-strong army of rail workers, is focused on delivering a better service for passengers. We are acutely conscious that many people want to use the railway over the bank holiday to reunite with their friends and families, which is why the vast majority of the network is running normally over the long weekend.”