Plan ahead for Christmas travel as major London stations, including Liverpool Street and Paddington, face closures. Find out how services to key airports and cities will be affected.
Network Rail has announced significant rail disruptions over the Christmas period, with several of London’s main railway stations set to close and train services diverted. Passengers are urged to plan ahead to avoid inconvenience during the festive season.
Liverpool Street, now the busiest station in Britain, will be shut for eight days, while Paddington will close for three days. Additionally, nine days of work will impact Thameslink and East Midlands services north of St Pancras. These closures will affect trains to London’s four major airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, and Luton.
In other parts of the country, a week of work around Crewe will keep the station closed for an extra day after Boxing Day, reducing services to Liverpool and Manchester.
Despite previous calls to halt planned disruptions during festive periods, Network Rail has stated that tens of thousands of railway engineers will be working over Christmas and New Year. This work aims to provide better, more reliable services for passengers, causing less disruption than during a regular week.
The most severe disruption is expected on the Midland mainline from St Pancras. There will be no East Midlands Railway services south of Bedford and no Thameslink services up to Harpenden from 21 to 29 December. Passengers usually travelling north from St Pancras will need to use other stations and connecting buses.
No services will call at London Paddington between 27 and 29 December due to work on HS2’s new Old Oak Common station. Some trains will run to and from Euston, but most will start or stop at Reading and Ealing Broadway.
Liverpool Street will be closed from 25 December to 2 January for work at Bishopsgate tunnel and the station itself. Greater Anglia services, including the Stansted Express, will be diverted via Stratford, while London Overground services will terminate at London Fields.
Signalling work at Crewe will close the station on 27 December, with services affected until 3 January. Many trains into Cambridge will be replaced by buses from Christmas until 6 January.
The first timetables for train services running over Christmas are expected to be available online from this weekend at National Rail Enquiries or individual train operator websites.