Check before you travel (CBYT) spring 2026 – phase 2, Early and Late May
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Dates
7 April 2026 - 4 May 2026Locations
NationalAudience
All passengers:Total audience: bank holiday leisure and business travellers.
Target audience: young males, aged 16-34 years old, employed, travelling with others and for leisure purposes (who are not planning train journeys, checking before they travel, or booking tickets in advance).
Media channels
Paid:- Radio
- Digital programmatic
- Social media
- Billboards
- Press
Owned:
- Digital station screens
- Printed poster sites
- Social media posts
- Website articles
Earned:
- Press releases
Internal
- Digital screens in offices/depots
Key contacts
Kaleb.Ells@networkrail.co.uk and Abimbola.Caulker@networkrail.co.uk
Phase 2 (Early May): 7 April to 4 May
The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness of planned rail engineering work over the spring bank holiday periods. We are encouraging leisure and business passengers to plan ahead and check if their train journey is affected before they travel by visiting www.nationalrail.co.uk/spring.
The 2026 spring bank holidays occur in quick succession: Easter, Early May, Late May.
Therefore, we are running our marketing campaign continuously. We change the creative assets immediately after each bank holiday to ensure the message is accurate and timely.
- Phase 1 (Easter): 16 February until 6 April
- Phase 2 (Early and Late May): 7 April until 4 May
- Phase 3 (Late May): 5 May until 25 May
The Early May phase of the spring campaign will be promoted across owned, earned, internal, low-cost, and paid media channels (digital, social, billboards, radio, press).
We are also supporting our regional and TOC colleagues by uplifting paid media in affected areas (towns/cities) including the North West and the West Coast South line.
There are 6 sets of creatives and messages which might be surfaced during different dates:
Materials for ‘National resources’ campaign:
7 April 2026 - 4 May 2026
Total: 6.29 MB
Total: 12.16 MB
Total: 15.40 MB
Total: 16.55 MB
Total: 18.32 MB
Total: 18.32 MB
Materials for ‘Anglia route’ campaign:
7 April 2026 - 4 May 2026
Materials for ‘North West & Central resources’ campaign:
7 April 2026 - 4 May 2026
Total: 22.01 MB
Total: 26.49 MB
Total: 33.39 MB
Total: 41.03 MB
Materials for ‘North West’ campaign:
7 April 2026 - 4 May 2026
Materials for ‘West Coast South’ campaign:
7 April 2026 - 4 May 2026
Materials for ‘Western’ campaign:
7 April 2026 - 4 May 2026
