Train services will be severely disrupted into and out of London Liverpool Street and in the Cambridge area until Sunday, 5th January, 2025 because of engineering work.

While much of the rail network across the east of England will be open, major engineering work is taking place between Christmas and into the New Year to deliver significant rail projects.

Passengers planning to travel by rail over the festive period should check with NationalRail.co.uk or with their train operator.

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day – Tuesday, 24th to Thursday, 26th December

• On Christmas Eve, the last train service on some routes will be earlier than normal.
• There will be no services on Christmas Day.
• There will be no services on Boxing Day, except for the Stansted Express, which will operate a revised service to and from Tottenham Hale.

London Liverpool Street station – Wednesday, 25th December to Wednesday, 1st January

• London Liverpool Street station will be closed to train services to allow engineering work within Bishopsgate tunnel, including installing steel support girders inside the tunnel and repairing existing steelwork to prevent corrosion.
• New ticket gates will be installed for platforms 1-10 to improve gateline capacity for passengers and reduce congestion at peak times.
• The station concourse and in-station retail shops will be closed.
• Scaffolding will be erected on Exchange Square at the north end of the Victorian train shed in preparation for renewal of the roof renewal.
• Greater Anglia services on the Great Eastern and West Anglia mainlines will run to/from Stratford, except Stansted Express services, which will run to/from Tottenham Hale.
• London Overground services will run to/from London Fields.
• All c2c trains will run to / from London Fenchurch Street via West Ham.

Cambridge area

• Major engineering work will take place in connection with construction of Cambridge South station and the first stage of renewing signalling in the Cambridge area.
• Shepreth branch junction will be completely remodelled.
• A new control system will be commissioned to operate the signals for Cambridge North and Ely from a new digital workstation at the Cambridge signalling centre.
• Track renewal will take place at Foxton sidings, which will require the closure of a level crossing on the A10 at Foxton with a diversion route for vehicles in place.
• There will be no rail services between both Royston/Elsenham and Cambridge/Cambridge North, including between Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds. Rail-replacement bus services will operate from Friday, 27th December.
• Train services will resume between Elsenham and Audley End from Thursday, 2nd January 2025, but rail-replacement bus services will continue between Royston/Audley End and Cambridge/Cambridge North until Monday, 6th January 2025.
• On Friday, 27th and Saturday, 28th December, Great Eastern mainline services via Chelmsford will include a rail-replacement bus service between Billericay and Witham.

“We’re continuing to deliver major improvements to the Anglia rail network this Christmas to the benefit of passengers and our customers. With two big station projects, a huge resignalling programme around Cambridge and improvement work at the UK’s busiest station, we’ve got a lot to do over the festive period to get the work done while trains are not running. It is important to allow our skilled engineers the time to be able to work safely on the track while trains are not running, and so I want to thank everyone for their patience while we deliver this important work to improve the railway.”

Lawrence Bowman, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia