Network Rail is urging festive travellers to plan their journeys in advance as it expects London Euston station to be much busier than usual from Christmas Eve into the New Year.

Its engineers will be carrying out work which will affect journeys into London Paddington and London St Pancras stations, which will lead to a significant increase in number of passengers travelling through Euston during the festive period.

The work is to improve the Great Western Main Line to make it ready for HS2’s new station at Old Oak Common near London Paddington.

Most engineering work on the West Coast Main Line will take place during the usual Christmas railway closure, from when services end on Christmas Eve until they restart on the morning of Friday 27 December.

In addition, GWR will be diverting some of its services to Euston between Friday 27 December and Sunday 29 December.

Further work – which Network Rail describes as “upgrades to help improve the reliability of journeys into London Euston” – will be carried out between Monday 23 December and Saturday 4 January.

This will include track drainage improvements near Milton Keynes and track upgrades between Watford and Milton Keynes.

Network Rail is asking West Coast Main Line passengers to or from Euston to travel before Tuesday 24 December or after Thursday 2 January if possible.

Upgrades on the Midland Main Line will extend both before and after the Christmas closure, with services disrupted between Saturday 21 December and Sunday 29 December.

Passengers on East Midlands Railway (EMR) services will be able to connect to trains to and from London Euston at Milton Keynes using replacement buses to Bedford.

EMR released information about festive disruption in September.

Network Rail is also warning of disruption in the Crewe area between Tuesday 24 December and Friday 3 January, when it will be carrying out major signalling and drainage upgrades to the freight network.

It is advising passengers to plan their journeys in advance, via National Rail Enquiries or their train operator’s website.

More information about travelling to and from London Euston station over the festive period is available here.

Avanti West Coast issued tickets for its Christmas services last month.

“We understand that travelling over the festive period is important for so many people and we want to make sure everyone reaches their destination as smoothly as possible.

“On top of upgrades which will help to make the West Coast Main Line more reliable for our passengers, we’ve got major engineering work affecting other routes into London this year, which means Euston will be extremely busy.”

Gary Walsh, director for Network Rail’s West Coast South route