North West bank holiday travel: What you need to know

With the return of sunny weather this bank holiday weekend, nearly 19 million people are expected to be on the road at the start of the school half-term holiday.

Transport officials are urging travellers to check ahead of time for updates and allow extra time for journeys, with delays expected on the M6 on bank holiday Monday.

Across England, Sunday is expected to see 3.4m journeys and bank holiday Monday could see 3.1m trips, possibly as people stagger the return leg of their trips.

Rail services are expected to run as normal on Saturday however there will be significant changes on Sunday due to engineering works between Warrington Bank Quay and Wigan North Western, meaning trains to and from London and Preston will not run.

Avanti West Coast services between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston will be reduced to two per hour in each direction.

Edinburgh-bound trains that would normally run from Euston will start and end at Preston instead.

London-Glasgow trains via Nuneaton will be diverted via Manchester Piccadilly and Bolton. The same service via Birmingham will run between Euston and Crewe only.

Rail replacement buses will run between Crewe, Warrington Bank Quay and Wigan North Western.

If you're travelling between Wigan North Western and Preston, you can use alternative train services at no extra cost.

Due to a strike, London Northwestern Railway (LNR) routes will also have a limited service on Friday and Saturday with one per hour between Birmingham and Liverpool.

On bank holiday Monday, engineering work means changes to late night services through Rugby, which will divert via Northampton.

Engineering work will also mean the 05:35 Crewe-bound service from Blackpool North will instead start from Preston at 06:00.

For travel between Blackpool North and Preston, you can use alternative train services at no extra cost.

The 22:00 London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street train will also terminate at Crewe, from where passengers can get a rail replacement bus at 00:25 to Lime Street, which will call at Runcorn.

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