UK bank holiday travellers warned to avoid taking the train

Network Rail has urged potential passengers who do not need to travel to work or for emergencies to avoid taking trains during the bank holiday.

The already drastically reduced national train service is undergoing a major overhaul over the long weekend with 490 upgrading projects taking place, it said.

Line closures and disruptions include maintenance work on switches and rail crossings between London Victoria and Herne Hill/Peckham Rye. As a result, no Southern or Thameslink trains will be running into Victoria over the bank holiday weekend, Network Rail said.

Meanwhile, the company said services between Manchester airport and Liverpool Lime Street to Preston will be affected due to renewal work of the rail track near Carlisle.

Other routes affected by this weekend’s national rail upgrade projects include Leeds to Wakefield, where there will no direct service on Sunday or Monday.

Andrew Haines, the Network Rail chief executive, urged travellers to plan their bank holiday journeys ahead.

“While Britain tackles the coronavirus and social distancing is in place, the railway can carry a fraction of the usual number of passengers. So, to make sure there is space for critical workers, please avoid travelling by train unless absolutely necessary.

“This bank holiday, to make sure our railway is at its very best when we emerge from this pandemic, we are continuing to work and invest in the rail network to make it more reliable for passengers. That means some journeys may be different, so if you have to travel please check your journey before leaving home,” he said.

The head of tourism on Brighton and Hove council has also urged those living beyond the seaside resort to avoid the city on bank holiday Monday.

Councillor Carmen Appich said stewards would be used to direct people to less busy parts of the seafront if the area becomes too busy on Monday.

The city council also pointed out that its seasonal lifeguard service will not be operating on Monday.

Covid-19 social distancing restrictions interrupted the council’s usual recruitment drive for lifeguards and as a result will start later in the summer. The lifeguards normally patrol Brighton and Hove’s beaches from the end of May until the end of the school holidays in September.

Brighton will be one of the hottest places across the UK on the bank holiday with temperatures expected to reach more than 20C on the south coast.

Most of the country should enjoy a fine day with spells of warm sunshine according to the BBC Weather Centre. However, in north-west Scotland there will be south-westerly winds bringing in cloud and rain later in the day.

The chances of a heavier volume of cross-border traffic bank holiday from Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic, meanwhile, may have increased after the partial easing of restrictions on pubs in the south.

According to reports in Dublin, pubs in the Republic can now deliver drinks and sell takeaway alcohol at their premises.

The partial easing of the clampdown on Irish bars came about after the Garda Síochána took legal advice on what pubs can and cannot sell during the lockdown.

As long as drinks including poured pints are paid for on licensed premises they can be delivered to customers. However, takeaways from the bars can only be permitted if they are consumed more than 100 metres away from the pub and not drunk in any public place.

Some bars in border areas have been running takeaway services, such as O’Flahery’s pub in Buncrana, which is a short drive from Derry in Northern Ireland.

Until last week, O’Flaherty’s was operating a “Guinness Express” with poured pints of stout being delivered wrapped in cling film. Gardai visited the bar last week but its owner claimed the police offices were unable to tell him which law he had broken by delivering pints.

The new legal advice to the Garda Síochána means O’Flaherty’s and all other southern Irish pubs can deliver drink including pulled pints if they are paid for in advance at the bar.