Following its announcement last month, Network Rail is reminding passengers that while over 96% of the rail network will run as usual over Christmas and New Year, important work will cause disruption on some routes. It is spending £127m on the work, which includes maintenance, resignalling, laying track and building a new station.

Some of the most significant work is:

• work outside London Victoria station, including maintenance and resignalling; Southeastern services will divert to Blackfriars, Charing Cross and Cannon Street (Saturday 23 December to Monday 1 January)
• HS2 work at Old Oak Common, laying new track at West Drayton; trains will not run from London Paddington between Sunday 24 and Wednesday 27 December; long-distance services will terminate at Reading with onward travel to either Ealing Broadway or London Waterloo; London Underground’s Piccadilly Line is open for travel to Heathrow Airport
• work on the East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP) between Welwyn Garden City and Hitchin in Hertfordshire; no long-distance services to or from London King’s Cross on Sunday 24 December; LNER, Hull Trains, Lumo, Thameslink and Great Northern services will be affected; no Grand Central services will operate; alternative travel arrangements are available online at National Rail Enquiries
• work near Southampton will disrupt services; details of diversions and alternatives are online
• construction work on the new Cambridge South station will disrupt services; details of diversions and alternatives are online.

More information and advice on planning journeys is available via National Rail Enquiries or your train operator.

Lawrence Bowman, network strategy director for Network Rail, said, “We understand how important this time of year is for our passengers for reconnecting with family and friends. With more than 96% of the network open for business as usual, we have tried as far as possible to design our investment projects around our passengers and keep disruption to a minimum.

“We are carrying out some significant projects, not as many as past years, but still some £127m of investment ranging from laying new track, installing new bridges and making improvements to stations so that passengers can benefit from better and more reliable services and facilities.

“We plan our Christmas engineering programmes months- and in some cases years- in advance and target the quietest times – overnight, weekends and Christmas Day and Boxing Day to ensure we keep what disruption there is to an absolute minimum and will always looks to use diversions rather than put people on buses.

“But some routes will see disruption as we upgrade the railway, so it’s important that passengers check their journeys before travelling.”