Tourists using the express rail link to Gatwick will have to contend with a 50 per cent cut in trains at the busiest getaway time of the year because of essential engineering work.

The work, by Network Rail, will reduce Gatwick Express's four-an-hour service to two-an-hour throughout the next three weekends, starting today.

The work will also hit weekday services run by the company, whose trains between London's Victoria station and Gatwick are full of holidaymakers.

From tomorrow, there will be only a half-hour service from Victoria on weekdays between 6am and 8am and from 5.30pm to 12.20am.

Similarly, there will only be two trains an hour from Gatwick between 6.50am and 8.50am and between 6.20pm and 1.35am.

"Any service cutback is disappointing but we are mindful that other companies use our lines and Network Rail has to decide the best time to do the work," said a Gatwick Express spokeswoman.

A Network Rail spokesman said the work involved major embankment stabilisation at Coulsdon South in Surrey.

He added that the timing of the work had been a joint decision between the three train companies affected - Gatwick Express, Thameslink and South Central.

"Across the three companies, there are a considerably lower number of people travelling in early August than at other times," said the spokesman.