BOSSES BLAME QUEEN FOR BANK HOLIDAY CHAOS

TRANSPORT chiefs are blaming the expected chaos on the rail network over the May Bank Holiday weekend… on the Queen.

Some journey times will treble when around 300 sets of engineering work, costing £70 million, are undertaken over three days, starting on Saturday.

Network Rail says it has increased the amount of work being carried out over the period to reduce disruption to the Queen’s Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend in June.

Former Transport Minister Norman Baker, spokesman for the Campaign for Better Transport, said: ‘It’s not fair to blame the Jubilee.

There’s never a perfect time to do engineering works, but Network Rail does far too many closures for works. It’s about time it started putting passengers first.’

The West Coast Main Line – serving the West Midlands, North-West England and West Scotland – will be severely hit next weekend when its London terminus at Euston is closed.

Passengers taking flights will be affected too. The Gatwick Express will be suspended for three days because of rail engineering work, while travellers using the Stansted Express will have to board replacement buses for part of their journey due to rail work.

A Network Rail spokesman said: ‘There’s never a good time to do such disruptive work. We want to avoid impacting the Jubilee weekend and the Commonwealth Games [July 28 to August 8] in Birmingham when demand for rail travel is expected to be high. The vast majority of the network is open for business as usual over the May Bank Holiday weekend.’

■ RAIL passengers using London’s Paddington station yesterday found journeys disrupted or cancelled due to a shortage of staff at Network Rail’s Thames Valley Signalling Centre in Didcot. Some Heathrow Express services were affected.