Passengers across London reminded to check before they travel this Christmas and New Year: This Christmas Network Rail is delivering 330 projects as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan

Monday 17 Dec 2018

Passengers across London reminded to check before they travel this Christmas and New Year

Region & Route:
National
  • More than £148m to be invested over the Christmas and New Year period
  • Railway open for ‘business as usual’ as majority of the network is unaffected by upgrade work
  • Service changes will be in place from Sunday 23 December to Tuesday 1 January

Rail passengers preparing for their Christmas getaway this week are being issued a final reminder to plan their journeys.

In just five days’ time, Network Rail will start its multi-million-pound Christmas investment programme that, once completed, will deliver more reliable infrastructure, improved facilities and services for passengers when they return to work.

A 25,000-strong workforce will work around the clock this holiday season to keep the railway open and deliver more than 330 projects as part of a £148m investment across Britain over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

The programme of work is part of Network Rail’s five-year railway upgrade plan – a multi-billion-pound investment in the rail network which will improve passenger journeys in the months and years ahead.

Overall there will be less disruption for rail users this year, compared to last, as most of the investment work has been scheduled for when no trains are planned to run, such as on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. However, some routes will see significant changes to normal services and so passengers need to plan their journeys as early as possible.

In some parts of the country, work will begin on Sunday 23 December this year to give engineers three clear days to make uninterrupted progress on vital projects.

Andy Thomas, managing director of strategic operations at Network Rail said: “This Christmas and New Year thousands of rail workers will be working round the clock to deliver crucial upgrades to the rail network as part of the £50bn railway upgrade plan. This huge investment programme will deliver more reliable infrastructure, improved facilities and services for passengers when they return to work.

“We know that our railway is up to 50% quieter than usual during the festive period so taking on and delivering these huge transformational schemes at this time of year minimises our impact on passengers who, so research shows, understand the need for such activity."

“While most of the network is open for business as usual, some routes are heavily affected and so we strongly advise passengers to plan ahead.”

Main service impacts:

*As usual, no trains will run on Christmas Day and a limited service will run on Boxing Day*

  • London Liverpool Street: Upgrading the overhead wiring system at Forest Gate junction as part of the £250m upgrade of the Great Eastern Main Line. This will see train services suspended between London Liverpool Street and Romford/Shenfield from Sunday 23 December to Tuesday 1 January.
  • London Paddington: Installing new track at Heathrow Airport junction to improve reliability. This means that there will no trains to/from London Paddington station from Sunday 23 to Wednesday 26 December and on Sunday 30 December.
  • London St Pancras: Replacing the track between London St Pancras and Kentish Town as part of the Midland Main Line Upgrade. This means there will be reduced services to/from London St Pancras from Monday 24 December to Tuesday 1 January.

 London Waterloo: Replacing old switches and crossings – the movable sections of track that guide trains from one track to another – with new kit at London Waterloo. This means that from Sunday 23 to Friday 28 December there will be changes to services.

 London Victoria: Installing new track at Battersea Pier junction, which will replace infrastructure built in the mid-1970s and improve reliability for the 240,000 passengers who pass through every day. This means there are no Southern or Gatwick Express services to/from London Victoria station from Sunday 23 December to Tuesday 1 January.

  • Clapham Junction: With work taking place on the routes into London Waterloo and London Victoria, there will be changes to services to/from Clapham Junction from Sunday 23 December to Wednesday 2 January.

A breakdown of how journeys will be affected can be found by visiting nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas and following #XmasRailWorks on Twitter.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

  • Passengers are advised to plan ahead and check before they travel. Customers can do this through checking with their train company or National Rail Enquiries website is giving day-to-day information regarding engineering work.
  • If people have booked on a train that is cancelled, delayed, or where their reservation will not be honoured, and they decide not to travel, they will be entitled to compensation.

Contact information

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

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office -Grete Luxbacher
Senior media relations manager
Network Rail
020 3356 8700
07710 959721
grete.gogay@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.

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