Train users warned of weekend disruption between York and Newcastle

From Sunday, 26 February, to Sunday, 14 May, there will be changes to train services between Newcastle/Middlesbrough and York on Saturday evenings and Sundays.

Network Rail is carrying out a £6million maintenance programme on the track as part of its railway upgrade plan to improve reliability and safety.

The essential work is taking place overnight for 11 weekends in order to disrupt as few passengers as possible.

It affects Grand Central, TransPennine Express, Virgin Trains and CrossCountry passengers.

The work involves the removal and replacement of sections of track either side of Thirsk station.

Some train services will depart earlier than usual, while others will be replaced by buses.

Some services won't call at Thirsk, with passengers having to use Northallerton instead.

The work has been deliberately planned to take advantage of Saturday nights when trains do not run in order to minimise disruption to passengers.

Passengers in Durham have already had service alterations for the first three weekends in January as platform extensions are carried out to allow all carriages of the longer Azuma trains, due to be introduced by Virgin Trains on their east coast route from 2018, to fit into the station.

Ben Rule, production director at CrossCountry, said: “We would like to thank our customers affected by these works for their patience while they are undertaken.

"There is never a good time to not run trains to enable these important works to be completed, but by doing them at times when passenger numbers are much lower means we can keep this inconvenience to a minimum.

"Given the changes to our and other operators’ services, we would ask anyone travelling on these dates to check their journey details carefully."

Anyone wondering how their journey might be affected should check with National Rail Enquiries.