London King's Cross railway station will be closed all weekend to passengers, prompting a "do not travel to London" warning.
No trains will run on the East Coast Main Line south of Peterborough while Network Rail carries out major upgrades on tracks and signalling as part of a £1.2 billion engineering project.
London North Eastern Railway, which operates services between London and Scotland on the east coast route, issued an alert to passengers which read: “Do not travel to or from London”.
It is only the second planned shutdown of all lines between the London station and Peterborough in two decades, Network Rail said.
Ticket restrictions were lifted on Friday night to help passengers complete their journeys before the shutdown started.
Rail replacement buses are being used on Saturday and Sunday but passengers were warned they will “add significant time to your journey and may be extremely busy”.
Ed Akers, principal programme sponsor for Network Rail, said: “We are continuing with vital work on the £1.2 billion east coast upgrade, which is the biggest investment into the line in a generation.
“We are urging passengers to heed the advice issued which is not to travel to/from London on the East Coast Main Line this weekend.
“We know that this is disruptive and we do apologise for this. Unfortunately, it is necessary to enable us to progress on this work, which will create more services, faster services and thousands more seats for passengers.”
Other affected operators are Grand Central, Great Northern, Hull Trains and Thameslink.
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Network Rail is carrying out engineering work around King’s Cross throughout 2020 and into next year. The station was modernised in 2012 but the track and signalling layout have not been improved in more than 40 years.
Other disruption due to engineering work this weekend includes:
- No trains to or from London Liverpool Street via Stratford on Saturday or Sunday.
- No South Western Railway trains at Wimbledon on Saturday or Sunday.
- No trains between Reading and Swindon on Saturday or Sunday.
- No trains between Canterbury West and Ramsgate on Saturday.
- No Southeastern trains to or from London Victoria on Sunday.
Network Rail is taking advantage of the absence of passengers at King’s Cross on Saturday to use the station’s concourse for exercise classes to raise money for mental health charity Mind.