Hundreds of thousands of rail passengers face major disruption over the May Day bank holiday weekend with the closure of large sections of the mainline network.

Network Rail is shutting lines to carry out maintenance and improvement work. Worst affected will be passengers wanting to use Liverpool Street, Waterloo and Euston.

Near Liverpool Street - used by 380,000 passengers a day - Transport for London is installing an 800-tonne bridge as part of the work to extend the East London line. Engineers face a race against time to open the tracks before rush hour next Tuesday morning.

Network Rail has planned much of the work to ensure there is no repeat of the chaos that followed the Christmas and Easter rail closures, when lines failed to reopen on time.

Disruption then was so bad that Chris Bolt, the Rail Regulator, imposed a record fine of £14 million on Network Rail for failing to do the job properly.

A senior Network Rail source said: "We have checked and rechecked everything to make sure we finish the work on time."

• Liverpool Street mainline station will be closed on Sunday and Monday, with all services to and from East Anglia stopping and starting at Stratford. Stansted Airport, Hertford East and Chingford trains will stop and start at Hackney Downs or Tottenham Hale.

• There will be no Virgin West Coast Main Line services operating south of Coventry or Birmingham International on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. This is due to work on the line's £8.6billion upgrade at Nuneaton, Milton Keynes, Rugby and the Trent Valley.

Passengers from the North and Scotland who had planned to arrive at Euston are advised to switch to the East Coast Main Line into King's Cross. Those from Manchester and Sheffield should use Midland Mainline into St Pancras. Those from Birmingham should use Chiltern Railways from Birmingham Snow Hill into Marylebone.

Virgin Trains is operating a number of replacement bus services.

• South West Trains passengers face double disruption, with engineering work taking place on Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Clapham Junction and Basingstoke.

Key sets of points are being replaced at Clapham Junction and extensive resignalling work will be done at Basingstoke. There are numerous changes to the SWT timetable with some services cancelled or diverted. Services to and from Waterloo will be badly affected.

Network Rail says it has deliberately chosen the bank holiday weekend because fewer people will be travelling then than on a normal weekday.

Chief executive Iain Coucher said: "While the overwhelming majority of services remain unaffected, our message to passengers is to check before you travel." Brian Cooke, chairman of London TravelWatch, said: " Passengers know the work must be done to improve the railways.

"But that said, Network Rail must make sure that it completes everything on time and reopens the track on schedule for the return to work on the Tuesday.

"There must be no repeat of the disruption witnessed following the Christmas and the Easter holidays when engineering work overran."

There will also be some disruption to Tube services during the three days.

Passengers can phone 08457 484950 to check on overland services and 02072221234 for London Underground.

HOT SPOTS

Liverpool Street

Closed on Sunday and Monday. All services stopping and starting at either Stratford, Hackney Downs or Tottenham Hale.

Clapham Junction

Major resignalling work on Saturday and Sunday. Major delays and cancellations for South West Trains services to and from Waterloo

Euston

No Virgin services south of Birmingham International and Coventry from Saturday until early Tuesday. Passengers advised to use other routes: Midland Mainline, East Coast Main Line and Chiltern Railways.

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