Travelling during the Christmas and New Year festive period? Be in the know before you go!

The Christmas and New Year holiday period covered by this travel guide runs from Tuesday 23 December 2025 until Friday 2 January 2026 inclusive.

There will be lots of planned essential engineering works and upgrades taking place as Network Rail works to improve the railway. In addition, some train companies will be making changes to their timetable, and to some train times, to match services to the number of customers travelling.

Planning and checking your journey

You can plan and check your journey before you travel using the National Rail Journey Planner (below). Important information and useful travel advice relating to your journey may show with warning symbols on your journey results.

There will be no National Rail services on Christmas Day as usual this year. On Boxing Day most train operators will have no service - however, there will be a very limited train service operated by a small number of train operators (Chiltern Railways, London Overground, Merseyrail, ScotRail, Southern and Stansted Express).

Please note that Journey Planner information is subject to change as timetables are still being finalised. Please continue to check your journey until you are due to set off – this will give you a chance to adjust your journey plans in advance if necessary, and avoid any last-minute disappointment.

Please check our Status and Disruptions page for up-to-date real-time information.

Find out more about your rights if a train changes.

Christmas and New Year changes being made by your train company

​​​​​​​Details of the service each train company will be providing is available via the links listed below.

• Avanti West Coast

• c2c

• Caledonian Sleeper

• Chiltern Railways

• CrossCountry

• East Midlands Railway

• Elizabeth line

• Gatwick Express

• Grand Central

• Great Northern

• Great Western Railway

• Greater Anglia

• Heathrow Express

• Hull Trains

• Island Line

• LNER

• London Northwestern Railway

• London Overground

• Lumo

• Merseyrail

• Northern

• ScotRail

• South Western Railway

• Southeastern

• Southern

• Stansted Express

• Thameslink

• TransPennine Express

• Transport for Wales

• West Midlands Railway

Major Improvement work on your railway during Christmas and New Year

A considerable number of engineering and improvement projects will be undertaken by Network Rail at Christmas and New Year. The impact of this work is showing in Journey Planners (although please take note of any warning or information symbols showing on your journey).

This year's major festive ‘headline’ projects include disruption at Britain's two busiest stations:

• No trains will run to or from the main London Liverpool Street station from Saturday 27 December to Thursday 1 January. Most train operators will terminate their services at alternative London stations. Engineering work will be taking place within Bishopsgate tunnel (on the approach to the station), also refurbishment work on the roof of London Liverpool Street station

• No trains will run to or from London Waterloo station on Saturday 27 December and Sunday 28 December. A limited service will run to and from London Waterloo from Monday 29 December to Friday 2 January. This will allow the renewal of worn out track and points around Queenstown Road.

• No trains will run between Milton Keynes Central and Rugby / Northampton from Saturday 27 December to Sunday 4 January. Trains on the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and the Midlands / North West England / Scotland will be significantly disrupted by this work. A railway junction is being replaced at Hanslope Junction (where one set of tracks from London continues straight to Rugby and the other splits off via Northampton)

• No trains will run between Preston and Carlisle from Wednesday 31 December to Thursday 15 January. Journeys through this part of the West Coast Main Line will be significantly disrupted. The 1960s Clifton Bridge over the M6 motorway is being replaced.

• No trains will run between Carlisle and Lockerbie from Thursday 1 January to Wednesday 7 January. Journeys on the West Coast Main Line between Carlisle and Glasgow / Edinburgh will be disrupted. New signalling is being installed at Kingmoor, just north of Carlisle

• No trains will run between Leeds and York from Saturday 27 December to Friday 2 January. Train services on the main route between these cities will be amended. Transpennine Route Upgrade improvements are being made in the Church Fenton area to the signalling, track and power supply

• No trains will run between Cambridge and Cambridge North, Bury St Edmunds and Stansted Airport from Saturday 27 December to Sunday 4 January. Significant changes will be made to services in the Cambridge area. The commissioning and testing of a new signalling system will be taking place to improve reliability and safety

• No trains will run between Dalmuir and Balloch / Helensburgh from Saturday 27 December until Wednesday 31 December. This also impacts services to Oban / Fort William / Mallaig which will run from Crianlarich instead of Glasgow Queen Street. The installation of a new railway bridge at Bowling will be taking place

You can also find details of all forthcoming engineering works on our website.

Christmas Eve Last Direct Trains From London

We are compiling a list of the last direct trains from central London stations to major destinations in Britain on Christmas Eve, Wednesday 24 December 2025 (based on the National Rail Journey Planner).

This will be published shortly and will be available from here.

Please note: when published, these train times may be subject to late-notice changes, so please continue to re-check that your entire journey is still possible before you travel.

Social media

For the latest rail travel news, why not follow National Rail on X? Over 1 million people follow @nationalrailenq on X. Our social media team are available 24/7 (except Christmas Day) to answer your rail queries and supply you with the latest real-time travel updates.

Follow #ChristmasRailWorks on X for updates.