Bank Holiday travel warning as rail firms issue early apology

Rail firms have warned of travel delays over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Rail firms have ramped up warnings to passengers travelling over the bank holiday weekend with major engineering work affecting several lines.

Virgin Trains issued an alert stating that its services will be "very busy" over the long weekend.

High demand is expected for east coast trains between London King's Cross and Scotland due to passengers seeking alternative routes to and from London because of the closure of London Euston on Saturday and Sunday, as well as Edinburgh's festivals coming to an end.

A Virgin spokesman said: "We expect our services on both routes to be very busy from Friday to Monday, and are advising customers to avoid travelling on our west coast route on Saturday or Sunday unless necessary.

"If customers choose to travel, we strongly recommend they book their tickets in advance, make a seat reservation and allow longer to get to their destination."

London Waterloo services - which have been disrupted for more than a fortnight as part of a major project - have been reduced even further until Tuesday.

Fewer than half of normal weekday services will operate as platforms 1-14 are closed to enable platforms to be extended to accommodate longer trains, boosting capacity at the UK's busiest station by 30%.