A YEAR of weekend and holiday rail delays is forecast for travellers as Network Rail carries out an unprecedented amount of engineering work.

The company has decided to sacrifice journeys during peak holiday periods in order to protect commuters from disruption.

It is spending £3.7 billion on maintaining and renewing tracks this year, compared with £2.9 billion last year.

More than 100,000 rail passengers are taking buses this Easter because Paddington and a stretch of the West Coast Main Line south of Milton Keynes are closed for four days. The East Coast Main Line is also closed this weekend between Stevenage and Peterborough.

Network Rail is closing part of the West Coast Main Line near Crewe from May to September and again from January to May next year. An alternative rail route means that most passengers will suffer only short delays.

The modernisation of the East Anglia lines out of Liverpool Street station in London will cause widespread delays at the end of May, and stations on the Hertford East branch will have no trains for nine days from May 18.

The Stansted Express is being replaced by buses every Sunday until spring next year. Passengers travelling north of Newcastle on the East Coast Main Line will have to take buses on May 10 and 11.

The Great Western Main Line from Paddington to Bristol and the West Country will be closed at Slough over the August Bank Holiday weekend to allow tracks to be replaced. Passengers will have to take replacement buses for part of their journey, adding at least an hour to the trip.

The West Coast Main Line is to close near Hemel Hempstead for the last week in August. Sections of the Settle to Carlisle line, one of the most scenic routes in Britain, will be closed for two weeks from the end of September. Dozens of smaller schemes will delay trains on many weekends throughout the summer.

Network Rail said that it was targeting holiday periods because trains were less busy, compared with the peak time for commuters. But passenger groups said that the policy was alienating hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the railway at weekends and during holidays to visit friends and relatives.

The groups believe that the decision to protect commuters is partly motivated by money. Train companies must compensate season ticket holders for disruption on working days. People who book tickets during planned line closures are not entitled to any compensation for delays.

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