Which rail lines will be running over Christmas?
For the next two weeks, millions of rail passengers will find journeys across Britain difficult. They will be hit by a combination of Network Rail engineering work, strikes and nature. This is a summary of the most significant Advent adversity.
Friday 20 December
South Western Railway (SWR)
SWR will operate barely half its trains to and from London Waterloo, as staff belonging to the RMT union continue their month-long strike over the role of guards. Branch lines are being particular badly hit.
Disruption continues up to and including New Year’s Day.
Eurostar
The cross-Channel train operator has cancelled eight trains between London St Pancras and Paris Nord, as well as a single departure from Brussels Midi to London.
In addition, the Ski Train for Friday night has been rescheduled to Saturday morning.
The cause: the nationwide strike in France in protest against planned pension reforms. Although Eurostar is not involved, its trains are subject to the shutdown.
Cancellations continue on Saturday, Sunday and Monday 21-23 December, which are among the busiest days of the winter. Ten trains have been axed on each of Boxing Day and 27 December, with further cancellations on 28 December.
Disruption continues indefinitely.
Greater Anglia
The line between Norwich and Great Yarmouth via Reedham is closed for engineering work lasting several months.
Disruption continues up to and including: 23 February 2020.
Saturday 21 December
LNER, Hull Trains, Grand Central
Evening services on the East Coast main line will be disrupted because of engineering work. This is part of a long-running series of weekend closures, with trains diverted via Lincoln, adding an hour to journey times and reducing frequency.
Disruption continues up to and including: 12 noon on Sunday 22 December.
Links from London St Pancras to Sheffield, Nottingham and Leeds are disrupted because of engineering work near Kettering.
Disruption continues up to mid-afternoon.
Gatwick Express
Departures in the early hours are cancelled because of engineering work, with alternative services on Southern.
Disruption continues up to 6.30am.
GWR Night Riviera
The first of 11 days of disruption to this London-Penzance overnight service begins gently, with changed timings between Exeter and Plymouth. But the following night, the Penzance-to-London train will go no further than Reading.
And from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve, no Night Riviera services will run.
Disruption continues up to and including: New Year’s Day, counting cancelled arrivals that morning. Services re-start in the evening of 1 January 2020.
Monday 23 December
Avanti, London Northwestern Railway
Late-night services on Monday and early morning services on Tuesday between London, Northampton and Birmingham will be disrupted by engineering work between Rugby and Long Buckby. Rail replacement buses will run.
Disruption continues up to and including Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve
GWR, Heathrow Express, Transport for London (TfL)
Once again, disruption at London Paddington is the worst of the year in terms of the numbers of affected passengers. GWR runs most services to and from the terminus for the West of England, the Cotswolds and South Wales.
It says with some understatement: “It’s best to travel by Monday 23 December.”
All lines in and out of London Paddington will be closed from Christmas Eve to Friday 27 December inclusive, because of track and overhead wiring work in the Southall area close to Heathrow.
On Christmas Eve and 27 December, GWR long-distance services to Exeter, Plymouth, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea will start and end at Reading.
The alternative route between London and Reading is from Waterloo on South Western Railway, but the RMT strike will reduce the number of available services.
Disruption continues up to and including: 27 December, after which less draconian changes take effect.
Christmas Day
No trains will run anywhere in the UK. National Express and Megabus plan to run more long-distance services than ever on 25 December.
Boxing Day
Only a few train operators will run any services, and they will be sharply reduced from the usual timetable. You can make some progress on: Chiltern; London Overground, for the first time, from Highbury & Islington to West Croydon and between Clapham Junction and Hackney Wick; Merseyrail; Northern; Scotrail; Southern; and Stansted Express, only between the Essex airport and Tottenham Hale, on the Victoria Line of the London Underground, but by no means all stations and lines will be served.
Southeastern will not run the high-speed services it normally operates on 26 December because of engineering work at Ashford International.
Friday 27 December
Southeastern
Trains on the High Speed One line from London St Pancras to Ashford International and station beyond in Kent will not run. Other, slower trains will continue from Victoria and Charing Cross.
Disruption continues up to and including 2 January.
Greater Anglia
The painfully long-running engineering work on the Southend Victoria line from London Liverpool Street continues; work on overhead power cables is taking place at Wickford, closing all lines. Buses will run instead.
Disruption continues up to and including 2 January.
GWR, CrossCountry, Transport for Wales
The main link between England and South Wales through the Severn Tunnel will not reopen after Christmas, and work will take place at various locations between Severn Tunnel Junction and Bridgend, west of Cardiff. Buses will replace trains between Bristol Parkway, Newport, Cardiff Central and Bridgend.
Some Valley Line services will run through Cardiff Central, but CrossCountry links from Birmingham will be replaced by buses.
Disruption continues up to and including New Year’s Eve.
LNER, Hull Trains, Grand Central, Great Northern, Thameslink
On the East Coast main line, the morning of Friday 27 December will bring disruption at a time when many passengers would plan to travel after a two-day shutdown.
Trains will be disrupted up to lunchtime to and from the southern terminus, London King’s Cross area, closing some lines on Friday morning. LNER, Grand Central and Hull Trains services will be cancelled or run with extended journey times.
Disruption continues until lunchtime.
Scotrail
Services west and north from Edinburgh will be disrupted from the end of service on Christmas Eve to because of work at Haymarket – the station serving the west side of the city centre.
Most cancellations will be of ScotRail trains, but some long-distance trains to Aberdeen and Inverness will start and end at Haymarket.
CrossCountry and LNER will not run north or west of Edinburgh.
Disruption continues up to and including 29 December.
Paddington station partially reopens, but only two of the four tracks between London and Reading will be in operation because the station will open due to track work between London and Reading.
Heathrow Express and TfL Rail links to Britain’s busiest airport will also be affected,.
Disruption continues up to and including New Year’s Eve.
East Midlands Railway
In the leading New Year closure, the line between Bedford and Market Harborough will be completely closed for a week. Travellers between London St Pancras and Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield will face annoyingly long and complicated journeys, with a bus replacement for the 36 miles between the two likely to take twice as long as the normal half-hour journey.
Disruption continues up to and including 4 January.
South Western Railway
As if the strike were not bad enough, the lines between Woking and Haslemere, Farnham and Guildford will be closed all weekend, with a rail-replacement bus.
Disruption continues up to and including 29 December.
Sunday 29 December
Chiltern
The main line from Birmingham to London will be out of service between Bicester and Princes Risborough, with buses replacing trains.
Disruption continues up to and including 30 December
Southern
The south coast line around Littlehampton and Bognor Regis will be disrupted, with rail replacement buses.
Disruption continues all day.
Monday 30 December
Northern
Lots of late-evening closures will be taking place across the network.
Disruption continues up to and including 3 January.
New Year’s Eve
Grand Central
Some afternoon and evening trains connecting Sunderland and Bradford with London King’s Cross will not run, and no services at all will operate on 1 January.
Disruption continues up to and including New Year’s Day.
New Year’s Day
Avanti
Most Avanti West Coast services between London Euston and Preston, Carlisle, Edinburgh and Glasgow will not run between Crewe and Preston. Some trains will be diverted via Manchester Piccadilly. Buses will be provided between Crewe, Warrington Bank Quay, Wigan North Western and Preston.
Disruption continues all day.
Southeastern
No trains between Folkestone Central and Deal, including Dover Priory. Those ever-popular rail-replacement buses will be running.
Disruption continues all day.
Thursday 2 January
Fares rise across Britain by an average of 2.7 per cent.
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