More than 800 railway improvement projects are planned by Network Rail during the two bank holidays in May, when a total of £135 million will be invested.

Most of the work takes the form of ‘normal’ weekend engineering overnight, when few passenger trains are running.

Between 4 and 6 May, continuing work on the new station at Cambridge South will cause some disruption on routes around the city. Track renewals in the Coventry area mean no trains will run between Birmingham Airport, Rugby and Leamington Spa.

On 5 May there will be no trains between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central, while there will also be no services between London and Glasgow on the West Coast route because of further possessions in various places, including Crewe and Wigan. Track is to be renewed around Liverpool on 5 and 6 May.

Network Rail’s system operator director Anit Chandarana said: ‘I’m pleased to say that while we’re continuing our investment in making Britain’s railway more reliable this May, the vast majority of the railway will be open for business as normal. We know people want to travel by train and not replacement bus and we do our best to fit as much work as we can into these closures to minimise the impact on passengers and freight customers.’

Disruption of a different kind will affect various English operators next week, when drivers’ union ASLEF stages further strikes in its continuing pay dispute. As before, this will be a series of ‘rolling’ strikes, affecting different groups of operators each day. A ban on overtime and rest-day working will be in force all week, and this could also cause some delays or cancellations.