Engineering work in the East Midlands next weekend will affect train services between Nottingham and Leicester, and some Midland Main Line journeys to/from London St Pancras.

The work will affect some early morning Nottingham-Norwich services and long-distance services to/from London St Pancras, which will run earlier or later than usual. Also affected will be trains between Nottingham and Leicester, which will run to an amended timetable and will not call at Barrow-upon-Soar, Sileby, or Syston, with rail replacement buses between Leicester and Loughborough, serving these stations.

The work will only affect services on Saturday, 20th September. During the work, Network Rail will replace over 560 metres of new rail at Syston North Curve. This is a £600,000 investment to improve the resilience and reliability of the line at a tight curve, primarily used by heavy freight traffic that causes average wear on the rails and other equipment.

Summary of changes:

• The 05.00 Nottingham to Norwich service will run 26 minutes later than usual as far as Peterborough, and the 06.08 Nottingham to Norwich service will run up to 14 minutes later than usual as far as Peterborough. These trains will not stop at East Midlands Parkway, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Oakham or Stamford, but a rail replacement bus from Nottingham to Peterborough will serve these stations and call at Grantham.
• The 07.31 Sheffield to London St Pancras International service will run up to five minutes earlier until Leicester.
• The 07.46 Nottingham to London St Pancras International service will depart Nottingham at 07.42 and Leicester at 08.13.
• The 08.12 Nottingham to London St Pancras International service will run up to eight minutes earlier until Market Harborough.
• The 09.10 Corby to London St Pancras International service will run three minutes earlier until Wellingborough.
• The 22.32 London St Pancras International to Derby service will depart Beeston earlier than scheduled at 00.10.

Although Network Rail tries to keep disruption to a minimum, its work often severely affects passengers, such as this weekend when services to Manchester and Bolton were disrupted, and later this month when there will be a nine-day suspension of services between Bristol, Worcester, Swindon and South Wales.

“This investment is all about improving reliability and resilience on a key part of our railway, which sees above-average wear. Replacing the rail in this way reduces the chances of disruption from future maintenance issues, and completing the work over a single weekend minimises the number of affected journeys as best we can. We would like to thank passengers for their patience and understanding, and we’re sorry if their journeys on 20 September take longer than usual.”

Dan Matthews, Network Rail operations director