Getaway plans for May's two bank holiday weekends will be disrupted by rail engineering work.

Network Rail will carry out more than 820 projects during the first and last weekends of the month.

The organisation said it schedules work for bank holidays as there are fewer passengers than normal on those days.

Significant work in the south of Scotland between Glasgow and Edinburgh means East Coast services will start and terminate at Edinburgh, while West Coast trains will not run north of Lancaster/Oxenholme Lake District.

In England, Birmingham, Heathrow airport and Liverpool rail services will be affected. Rail connections to the

Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne said: "This May, thousands of rail workers will be working round the clock to deliver crucial upgrades to the rail network as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan.

"This huge investment programme will provide faster, better services and help relieve over-crowding to respond to the huge growth on Britain's railways.

"While most of the network is open for business as usual, some routes are heavily affected and so we strongly advise passengers to plan ahead this May."