Rail engineering work to make overhead electric wires more resilient against hot weather will cause major disruption at one of the UK’s busiest stations during the early May bank holiday weekend.

Network Rail said no London North Western Railway services will run to or from Euston on Saturday April 29, while the station will be closed to all mainline operators the following day.

The work on Sunday April 30 will add several hours to the journeys of thousands of Avanti West Coast passengers who planned to travel between London and destinations in the West Midlands, north-west England and Scotland.

In hot weather, older overhead lines that provide power to trains can expand and sag, often resulting in delays.

Network Rail said its improvement work on the West Coast Main Line over the bank holiday weekend includes “overhead line work to prepare for hot weather” at Euston and Kings Langley, Hertfordshire.

They are among more than 600 projects across Britain that will take place.

Major impacts include c2c services to and from Liverpool Street being diverted to Fenchurch Street on April 30, disruption to South Western Railway and CrossCountry services on April 29 and 30, and no ScotRail services between Glasgow and Edinburgh via Carstairs on April 29 or 30.

Jake Kelly, Network Rail’s system operator director, said: “The majority of the rail network will be open as usual for passengers travelling over the bank holiday weekend, but we do have some vital upgrade work taking place to improve journeys in some areas, so please check before you travel, either with your train operator or using National Rail Enquiries.

“There’s never a good time to impact rail services, but with fewer passengers typically travelling over the bank holidays, we have the opportunity to complete vital work to provide better and more reliable journeys whilst minimising disruption for our passengers and freight users.”