We’ve now got a bit more information but compared to the publicity around the diversions at New Year/Jan things are much quieter.

Trains will follow a similar pattern to a few weeks ago : most are a shuttle between Preston and Carlisle but there are a few ‘through’ services between the Midlands (eg Wolverhampton, Birmingham) and Carlisle. These will run on Easter Saturday and Sunday (4, 5 April) then the next weekend (11, 12 April) through to the following weekend (18, 19 April). Again, trains are likely to use the Class 805 Evero units. The closure of the West Coast route (WCML) is due to assorted engineering work, a bridge replacement north of Lancaster being part of the work.

Regular users of the Yorkshire Dales Explorer may remember earlier this year that calls at some stations were cancelled during these diversions : we’ve been assured that won’t be the case during the diversions in April.

For timings and more detail, we suggest the Realtime Trains website