Most of Britain's rail services will run as usual over the Christmas and New Year period, although a number of routes will be affected by around 300 key investment projects.
From 25th December 25 to 2nd January there will be no services to or from Liverpool Street station due to bridge reconstruction, switches and crossing refurbishment and track maintenance around Liverpool Street station and auto transformer commissioning and track maintenance at Stratford and Forest Gate.
- Greater Anglia trains will run between Ingatestone and Billericay with rail-replacement buses running between Ingatestone and Newbury Park and Billericay and Newbury Park.
- Cambridge and Stansted Express trains will start and terminate at Tottenham Hale.
On the c2c lines, overhead lines are being replaced in the Grays area.
- On the Ockendon line, buses will replace trains on certain days between either Chafford Hundred and Pitsea or Grays and Pitsea.
- On the Rainham line, trains will not run on some days, with rail-replacement running between Upminster and Grays.
From Sunday, 25th December 25 to Monday, 2nd January there will be no Southern or Gatwick Express trains to or from London Victoria due to resignalling and track work at Clapham Junction and Balham.
- Most Southern trains will be diverted to operate from London Bridge with rail-replacement buses running between Clapham Junction and East Croydon.
- Gatwick Express trains will not operate, but Southern and Thameslink trains operate frequent alternative trains between Gatwick Airport and London Bridge.
Between Saturday, 24th and Friday, 30th December, long-distance services from London Euston will run to a reduced timetable to Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street, Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham International/Blackpool North/Scotland and Glasgow Central due track renewals at Harlesden, platform work at Milton Keynes Central, and bridge work at Camden and Wolverton.
Cannon Street, London Bridge, and Lewisham,
From Sunday, 25th December 25 to Monday, 2nd January signal and track renewals will be taking place near Lewisham station and the station will be closed.
- Cannon Street station will be closed on Saturday, 24th December with some services start/terminating at London Bridge.
- There there will be no trains between New Cross, St. Johns and Dartford via Bexleyheath, with trains along that route replaced by rail-replacement buses.
- Dartford services will run via Greenwich and Sidcup.
- Between Tuesday, 27th December and Sunday, 1st January, bridge strengthening work will be taking place at Queenstown Road and there will be a reduced suburban service from London Waterloo.
- Between Tuesday, 27th December and Monday, 2nd January, re signalling will be taking place place at Earlsfield with rail-replacement buses runngin between Wimbledon and Clapham Junction.
To find out how their journeys will be affected by the changes, passengers should contact their train operator via National Rail Enquiries, or follow #ChristmasRailWorks on Twitter.
Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said: “Christmas is an important time for the railway as it gives us the opportunity to get a lot of work done to improve the railway when trains aren't running, and therefore keep disruption for our passengers at a minimum.
“We've worked closely with our train operators to ensure the vast majority of the network is open for business over the festive period so people can travel by rail to spend time with their families and friends. However, some of these key upgrade projects will have an impact on services, so we're asking passengers to plan their journeys before travelling.
“And a huge thank you to the thousands of rail workers who will be working over this period to keep services running and delivering upgrades to improve our railway, therefore bringing more reliable journeys to passengers in the future.”
