Christmas and New Year engineering works
Most of the railway will be open this Christmas while we carry out a small number of essential engineering works.
Passengers will be able to travel across most of the railway network this Christmas and New Year while essential upgrade work takes place at a small number of locations.
Most routes will remain open, helping people travel to spend time with family and friends during the festive period. Where services are affected by engineering work, alternative travel arrangements will be in place. Passengers are encouraged to check their journey before travelling and allow extra time where needed.
The quieter festive period gives our engineers one of the best opportunities to carry out major improvements with less impact on customers. This year, Network Rail is investing £152 million in projects designed to improve reliability, increase capacity and support better journeys for passengers and freight. Key work will take place at locations including London Paddington, Birmingham New Street and Huddersfield stations.
We understand that changing travel plans can be inconvenient, especially at Christmas. That’s why we schedule the most disruptive work between Christmas Day and New Year, when fewer people are travelling.
These longer engineering possessions allow teams to complete complex projects that cannot be carried out during normal railway operations, helping to deliver a more reliable railway for the future.
As usual, train services will not operate on most routes in England on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Journey planners, including National Rail, are now up to date with travel information through to 4 January 2027. Please check before you travel by visiting National Rail or your train operator’s website.
Follow #ChristmasRailWorks on X (formally known as Twitter) for updates.
Check before you travel
What do our planned engineering works involve?
Major railway improvement projects this Christmas
London Paddington improvements
The station will be closed from Christmas Day, while engineers deliver a package of improvements across the Thames Valley on the main line into the station. The work will include replacing Dolphin Junction near Slough, upgrading overhead line equipment and installing new track, alongside a deep clean of Paddington station. These improvements will help deliver more reliable journeys for passengers.
Services will begin returning from New Year’s Eve. Heathrow Express and Elizabeth Line trains will link Paddington and Heathrow again from 31 December 2026, but the Elizabeth Line won’t run any further West until 4 January 2027 due to the work at Dolphin Junction. The Elizabeth Line will still run through the central core to Paddington’s low level platforms through the whole period (aside from Christmas Day and Boxing Day). Great Western Railway services will be unable to access Paddington until Monday 4 January 2027. Long-distance GWR services will instead start and finish at Reading, while some services will divert to London Euston. Paddington station will remain open for customers to use toilets and other facilities.
Birmingham New Street upgrades
The station will be closed on Christmas Eve through to the start of service on Tuesday 29 December, as part of a three-year project to replace overhead power supplies for trains. This will improve the resilience of the system and keep the station flowing. There will also be a major project to replace track and points in nearby Soho.
Birmingham New Street station will remain open for passengers to use toilets and other facilities.
Great Eastern Main Line track replacement
The route will be closed for 10 days from Christmas Days for a major track replacement project at Forest Gate in east London, replacing worn-out rails and sleepers to provide a better ride and better reliability for passengers as well as maintaining operational flexibility on this busy part of the railway into London Liverpool Street. This will mean no Greater Anglia or Elizabeth line rains will run through the area until the early hours of Monday 4 January 2027.
Please note that the route from Liverpool Street to Cambridge via Stansted Airport is not affected by the Forest Gate engineering.
Redhill track and points renewal
The railway through Redhill will be closed from 20 December for new track and points – which allow trains to cross from one track to another – to be laid in the station area. Points can be a cause of delay for passengers as they get older and harder to maintain in good condition, and replacing them a key part of improving punctuality for passengers. Services to Brighton and Gatwick Airport will run, however buses will replace trains from Reigate and intermediate stations from Earlswood to Purley on the Brighton Main Line. The work is planned to end in the early hours of Monday 4 January 2027.
Huddersfield station transformation
The Transpennine Route Upgrade programme begins the final phase of the transformation of Huddersfield Station this festive period, with the railway disrupted in the area from Christmas Day until the morning of 1 February 2027, working to bring huge improvements to services in West Yorkshire and the wider region, electrifying the railway and increasing capacity to allow for more, faster, quieter trains across the north.