Vital upgrades affecting London journeys taking place over several weekends from February

Network Rail has issued the following press release about engineering work that will affect Thameslink services:

Passengers are warned that buses will replace trains on sections of the Bedford to London route during weekend work which will see major strides made in a project delivering better journeys on the Midland Main Line.

Over nine weekends between Saturday 22 February to early June, engineers will be carrying out essential infrastructure work south of Bedford to upgrade the overhead lines that power trains between Bedford and London.

It means that Thameslink and East Midlands Railway journeys between London St Pancras International and Bedford will be significantly altered and are likely to involve a bus (see editors' notes).

This work is crucial for the introduction of East Midlands Railway’s (EMR) new greener fleet of bi-mode trains.

These improvements will also mean smoother and more reliable journeys for passengers travelling between South Yorkshire, the East Midlands and London.

In addition, teams will be removing a temporary bridge at Agar Grove in Camden. This follows the successful replacement of the bridge deck over Christmas 2024, bringing the project a step closer to completion.

Early development and enabling work will be carried out on Luton and Flitwick stations’ access improvements, a bridge replacement at Harlington, and the new Wixams station being developed by Bedford Borough Council (see editors' notes).

Other work will include track upgrades, to make services more reliable, and drainage improvements to prevent flooding. Further progress will be made on the rail link to SEGRO’s Radlett Strategic Freight Interchange for Hertfordshire, as well as dozens of maintenance jobs along the section of route which is closed.

Passenger services will be disrupted and rail replacement bus services running while this work is taking place. Customers are being urged to plan ahead and check www.nationalrail.co.uk before they travel.

Mark Budden, route director for East Midlands, said: “These vital upgrades between Bedford and London along the Midland Main Line are a crucial step in delivering a more reliable and efficient railway for many years to come.

“We understand how disruptive work like this is and I’m sorry to passengers who will need to re-plan their journeys. We’re making sure we make the best use of these weekends and carrying out dozens of jobs which will make our railway more reliable at the same time.

“I’d ask passengers to make sure they know which weekends are affected and plan their journeys well in advance."

Jenny Saunders, customer service director for Thameslink, said: “These upgrades will bring about big change on the Midland Main Line from London to Bedford – but for this to happen, passengers will experience some disruption on weekends while engineers are hard at work.

“I’d like to thank people for their patience while these works are ongoing and apologise to those who may need to change plans because of this.

“We’ll have staff up and down the network ready to support you on your travels, but the most important message is to check before you leave for your journey, using the Thameslink website.”

Philippa Cresswell, customer service director for East Midlands Railway, said: “We recommend customers planning to travel to or from London over numerous weekends between February and June to check their journey in advance before travelling. Information about changes for each weekend will be available on the EMR website.

“We would like to thank our customers for their patience whilst Network Rail upgrade the overhead power lines. This work will greatly benefit our customers in the future with more reliable journeys to and from London.”

Jenny Saunders, customer service director for Thameslink, said: “These upgrades will bring about big change on the Midland Main Line from London to Bedford – but for this to happen, passengers will experience some disruption on weekends while engineers are hard at work.

“I’d like to thank people for their patience while these works are ongoing and apologise to those who may need to change plans because of this.

“We’ll have staff up and down the network ready to support you on your travels, but the most important message is to check before you leave for your journey, using the Thameslink website.”