Tourism businesses have condemned Network Rail’s decision to shut much of Cumbria’s rail network over the bank holiday weekend.

Buses replace trains between Lancaster and Glasgow/Edinburgh, on the Windermere branch line and between Carlisle and Maryport on the Cumbrian Coast line.

Meanwhile, a long-term closure applies between Carlisle and Appleby on the Carlisle-Leeds route because of a landslip near Armathwaite.

Network Rail says it is carrying out work over three days this weekend because “bank holidays are typically much quieter times”.

But Nigel Wilkinson, of Windermere Lake Cruises, said the scheduling demonstrated a lack of understanding of Cumbria’s economy.

Mr Wilkinson, who chairs the Lake District National Park Partnership’s business task force, added: “While I am sympathetic to Network Rail, I do wonder whether they have considered if the work needed to be done at this time.

“It’s a very different proposal here than in a city, where business and commuter trains have to be prioritised. Here tourism is core to what we do.”

Jeanette Edgar, director of marketing and communications at Lakeland Arts, argued the closures represented a lack of planning.

She said: “It’s ludicrous. It’s very unfortunate when you’re drawing advertising plans up to get people to come from further afield, places such as Manchester, Liverpool and London that have great train links, only for something like this to happen.

“It’s a lack of joined-up thinking. We’ve just opened a road [the A591]. Now we’re closing the railway on a bank holiday.”

And Adrian Mason, head of operations and marketing at Tullie House Museum in Carlisle, said the bank holiday closures were “worrying”.

He added: “The difficulty we have at the moment is that we don’t know exactly what impact these train closures will have, so it is too early to tell specifically. Anything that impacts on our ticket sales is going to make us worse off. News such as this is likely to deter people from coming because of longer journey times.”

Full details of the disruptions are online at www.nationalrail.co.uk .