Midland Main Line upgrade to affect train services between Bedford and Luton

There’ll be disruption to train services between Bedford and Luton on three weekends in January and February.

It’s part of the Midland Main Line upgrade project with improvements being made to overhead line equipment which will allow new trains to run at 125mph.

On the weekends of January 20 and 21 and February 10 and 11, buses will replace late night Saturday and early morning Sunday trains between Luton and Bedford. Train services will run as normal until 11.40pm on Saturday nights and from 8am on the Sunday mornings with buses replacing timetabled trains in between.

Throughout the weekend of Saturday, January 27 and Sunday, January 28, buses will replace trains between Bedford and Luton with a train shuttle service between London St Pancras and Luton, calling at Luton Airport Parkway. An amended East Midlands Railway northbound service will start from Bedford over the weekend, and on the Saturday, Thameslink’s usual Bedford to Horsham services will only run between London Bridge and Horsham.

Dave Meredith, customer services director for EMR, said: “We are encouraging customers planning to travel in January and February to plan their journeys in advance by checking for updates on the EMR website.

“Engineering work will affect EMR services at weekends for three weeks, starting on Sunday, January 21. Customers should expect extended journey times with rail replacement buses and amended timetables in place.

“We would like to thank our customers for their patience whilst the engineering work to electrify the Midland Main Line takes place.”