Reported by The Guardian
London Paddington and Birmingham New Street stations will shut for five days but most routes will stay open
Passengers travelling on some of Great Britain’s busiest railway lines at Christmas have been warned of significant disruption from 10 days of engineering works.
Work will close London’s Paddington station – affecting intercity trains to the west of England and Wales until January – as well as Birmingham New Street, the UK’s busiest station outside the capital, for five days over the holiday period.
More from the original report
Passengers travelling between London , north-east England and Scotland will have to negotiate the part closure of the east coast mainline on Christmas Eve. Direct trains from the capital to parts of Essex and Norfolk will also be cut for much of the festive period.
Network Rail said most routes would still stay open and that the Christmas period, when train services generally stop for 25 and 26 December, remained the best time to conduct essential works.
Engineers hope to use the quieter festive days to carry out about £152m of works to improve reliability and capacity.
The biggest engineering work is expected on the lines leading into London Paddington, including replacing a junction near Slough. Most Great Western services to Wales and the west of England will start and finish at Reading, with some services diverting around Oxford to London Euston, from 27 December until 4 January.
The work also means Elizabeth line services west of Paddington and Heathrow Express services will not resume after Christmas until 31 January.
Birmingham’s main station, New Street, will be closed from the start of Christmas Eve until 29 December to replace overhead power supplies. No trains will stop or pass through, with rail replacement buses serving the city centre.
Passengers using east coast mainline services run by LNER and other operators may wish to avoid travel on Christmas Eve. Work at Doncaster means trains between London, north-east England and Scotland will be partly replaced by rail replacement buses from Newark to York, adding two hours to journeys.
The Great Eastern mainline out of London Liverpool Street will be closed for…