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Avanti West Coast Trains to Glasgow- Engineering Work in Scotland

Posted by (Lake District, England) on

An update on Avanti Trains to Glasgow between 4 March and 4 June, for anyone thinking of travelling-

Throughout this period you will need to check trains to Glasgow very carefully, and timetables/tickets will be released late. Keep checking with Avanti.

The confirmed plans now are-
- No Saturday and Sunday Trains at all north of Carlisle for the whole 3 month period with coach replacements (on 4, 5 and 12 March there is also engineering at Preston so it will be a train London to Wigan/bus to Preston (change)/bus Preston to Lancaster/train to Carlisle/bus Carlisle to Glasgow scenario);
- On Weekdays 4 to 17 March- coaches north of Carlisle, except 1 through train each day each way; also a much reduced service between Carlisle and Preston;
- On Weekdays 20 March to 21 April- a reduced and diverted service with longer journey times between Preston and Glasgow.

There will also be other changes (yet to be announced) at the Easter weekend and at the early May Bank Holiday weekend.

So at these times the best solution is to travel to Edinburgh on LNER or Lumo, then Scotrail to Glasgow Queen Street This means that East Coast trains can be expected to be busier than normal.

The reduced service between Preston and Carlisle on these dates will also affect anyone visiting the Lake District and anyone travelling between Manchester Airport and Scotland.

Posted by
9580 posts

Thank you for this helpful and comprehensive update !

Posted by
45 posts

Hi isn31c, thanks for the detailed info. Is there a way to find out if other Avanti West Coast routes might be impacted?

Specifically, we’ll be traveling London-Liverpool-return on 22 March 2023. I don’t know if that route is part of the overall London-Glasgow route, and thus potentially impacted?

Posted by
5758 posts

Mike S,

No, Liverpool is well south of the work area. Avanti are making hard work of the timetabling- there are different timetables for every few days- that one is open for booking and confirmed on the journey planners, but not in pdf format.

Trains are as normal at 43 minutes past each hour, arriving 2 hours 21 minutes later at 4 minutes past the hour.

Generally Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham are unaffected by this work, although on certain weekends Euston may be additionally closed for HS2 building work.
That is very likely at Easter, and the two May Bank Holiday weekends- yet to be confirmed.
When that happens trains are turned round at Rugby, Milton Keynes or Watford Junction, and passengers bussed to Bedford on the Midland Main Line for connections to St Pancras (or Stanmore on the Jubilee line), not bussed into Euston.
We already know that London North Western have no trains into Euston over Easter, also that they have no trains between Stafford and Crewe (which will affect Liverpool trains that weekend).
Basically the whole West Coast Main Line is barely working it seems at Easter with 3 major worksites.

Posted by
5758 posts

The weekday engineering work at Carstairs is now completed on time, so full services have now recommenced between Carlisle and Edinburgh/Glasgow.
This also means that the daily LNER service to and from Glasgow, and Scotrail services between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh via Carstairs (a little known route between the two cities) are now also running again.
Weekend work continues until 4 June.

Posted by
5758 posts

At the early May Bank Holiday the only engineering work on the route is this work. Euston is actually open and no work between Crewe and Preston

Posted by
5758 posts

This weekend sees the on time completion of this long term engineering work, so full 7 day a week service is restored through Carstairs.
This also allows LNER to reintroduce their daily train from London Kings Cross to Glasgow via Edinburgh, and Scotrail to fully restart their 4th Glasgow (Central) to Edinburgh route- the route via Carstairs.

Posted by
9580 posts

Yayyyy, wonderful news. Thanks for keeping us updated on this !

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