Network Rail engineers will be tackling more than 440 projects across Britain this August bank holiday – representing an investment of £84.3m to improve train performance and reliability for passengers and freight.

The vast majority of rail services will run as normal over the bank holiday weekend, however, passengers are being urged to check before travelling as some journeys will be affected by upgrade and engineering work.

Network Rail’s system operator group director, Anit Chandarana, said: “With the August bank holiday weekend approaching, we’ve carefully planned our engineering work to keep disruption to a minimum so people can rely on the railway to get them to events and destinations across the country.

“There’s never a good time to do the work we need to do, but the bank holiday Monday gives us an opportunity when fewer people are travelling to complete major work we couldn’t do in a normal weekend.

“Though the vast majority of the railway will be running as usual, disruption in some areas is unfortunately unavoidable, so I advise those planning to travel over the bank holiday weekend to check their journeys in advance.”

Notable locations affected by this programme of work include:

• London King’s Cross: No long distance services will run to or from the station from the early evening of Saturday 24 August until early morning on Monday 26 August as work takes place as part of the East Coast Digital Programme and work is carried out between Biggleswade and Potters Bar. Replacement bus services will be in place during that period. The work has been carefully planned to avoid the busiest times of the August Bank Holiday weekend.
• London Euston: A reduced timetable will be in place between Euston and Milton Keynes on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 August as track renewals to deliver more reliable journeys takes place at Primrose Hill.
• Stoke-on-Trent: Services will be disrupted in the Stoke area from Saturday 24 August until Tuesday 27 August as work to renew switches and crossings; the moveable sections of track which guide trains from one track to another and allow them to cross paths. An amended train service will run between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly via Stafford, Crewe and Wilmslow, and bus replacement services will be in operation.