CHRISTMAS 2025: Network Rail to carry out major upgrades to disrupt trains into London Waterloo

Monday 6 Oct 2025

CHRISTMAS 2025: Network Rail to carry out major upgrades to disrupt trains into London Waterloo

Region & Route:: Southern: Wessex; | Southern

Train services into and out of London Waterloo will be disrupted from Saturday 27 December 2025 to Sunday 4 January 2026 as engineers carry out vital upgrades near Queenstown Road. The work will improve safety and reliability on one of the country’s busiest railways.

More than 350 engineers will renew track, switches and crossings, and conductor rail between Queenstown Road and Nine Elms junction. Platforms at Queenstown Road station will also be altered to fit the new track layout. The programme will strengthen the railway’s foundations with new ballast and sleepers and improve electric power delivery to trains.

Changes to train services

On Christmas Day and Boxing Day there will be no train services as normal.
No trains will call at London Waterloo from Saturday 27 to Sunday 28 December with trains terminating at Clapham Junction.
From Monday 29 December 2025 to Sunday 4 January, timetable reductions will be in place. Timetables will be available from 3 October.
Queenstown Road station will be closed from Saturday 27 December 2025 to Sunday 4 January 2026
Vauxhall station will be closed from Saturday 27 December to Tuesday 30 December 2025, and on 1 January 2026. Trains will call at Vauxhall on New Years Eve, and from 2 January onwards.
Ticket acceptance will be in place on alternative routes and details of this will be found by visiting National Rail Enquiries or the SWR website
Further details on the works being carried out can be found by visiting our dedicated project webpage .

Speaking on behalf of Network Rail and South Western Railway, Mark Goodall, Wessex route director said: “We are giving passengers early notice that there will be changes to train services for those travelling to and from central London over the festive period. We are advising passengers to plan ahead and use alternative routes into the capital. We are sorry for the disruption this closure between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction will cause however these works will provide a more reliable journey for everyone who travels on one of the country’s busiest railways .”

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Tom Moore
Communications Manager
Network Rail
07354531500
Thomas.Moore@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Media centre