Christmas closure of London Liverpool Street station and engineering work across East Anglia over Christmas and New Year

Passengers across East Anglia are being reminded to check before travelling this Christmas as London Liverpool Street will be closed for eight days and engineering work will close all routes in the Cambridge area until January 5.

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 rail projects.

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

Service changes for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day (December 24 to 26):

Train services are likely to finish early on Christmas Eve on some routes and passengers should check the departure time of their last train.

As usual, train services will not operate on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, except for the Stansted Express which will operate a revised service to/from Tottenham Hale on Boxing Day.

No rail replacement services will be available on these two days.

London Liverpool Street station engineering work – Wednesday, December 25, to Wednesday, January 1:

London Liverpool Street station, the UK’s busiest station, will be closed to train services from Christmas Day for eight days to allow engineering work to take place within the Bishopsgate tunnel approaches.

This work includes the installation of steel support girders inside the tunnel and work to repair existing steelwork to prevent corrosion.

Work within the station itself will continue to take place to install new ticket gates for platforms 1-10.  This is to improve gateline capacity for passengers and reduce congestion at peak times. The station concourse and in-station retail shops will be closed to the public over the eight days.

Preparation work for the roof renewal programme (pictured above) will also be taking place including the construction of scaffolding on Exchange Square at the north end of the Victorian train shed.

This work will renew the glazing panels above platforms 1-10 to allow more light into the station, improve the drainage system and renew the seals to make the roof resilient to more frequent and intense storms.

Greater Anglia, c2c and London Overground service changes for London Liverpool Street:

From Friday, December 27, 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.

Passengers should use Victoria line services from Walthamstow Central and Seven Sisters or local bus services to complete their journeys during this closure. All c2c trains that usually run to / from London Liverpool Street will be amended to run to / from London Fenchurch Street via West Ham. Click here for more information from NationalRail.co.uk 

Cambridge area engineering work – Wednesday, December 25, to Sunday, January 5:

From Christmas Day, major engineering work is taking place on the railway in the Cambridge area for up to 12 days. This is to support the continuing construction of Cambridge South station and also deliver the first stage of the signalling renewal programme of the Cambridge area.

The complete remodelling of Shepreth branch junction, including track, overhead line electrification and renewal of moveable track sections will be taking place to make the junction more efficient with increased line speed through the junction for future services.

Engineers will also connect the two additional tracks that run through the new station to the rail network and reconfigure them into their final alignment.

The Cambridge re-signalling project (pictured above) has been installing new equipment across the area to modernise the signalling system.

At Christmas, the project plans to deliver its first key commissioning milestone by introducing a new control system to operate the signals for Cambridge North and Ely.

A new digital workstation at the Cambridge signalling centre  will replace part of the 40-year-old signalling panel allowing signallers to oversee the operation of the network more efficiently.

Additionally, a number of track switches and crossings, that allow trains to move from one track to another, are being renewed at Foxton sidings from Christmas Eve throughout the festive period. This will need a closure of a level crossing on the A10 at Foxton with a diversion route for vehicles in place.

Greater Anglia, Thameslink, Great Northern and CrossCountry service changes for the Cambridge area – Wednesday, December 25, to Sunday, January 5:

As usual, there will be no trains running on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.

There will be no rail services between both Royston/Elsenham and Cambridge/Cambridge North from Friday, December 27, to Wednesday, January 1.

Rail services between Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds are also affected during these dates. Rail replacement bus services will be in place between affected stations from Friday, December 27.

From Thursday, January 2, rail services will resume between Elsenham and Audley End. Rail replacement bus services will continue to run from Royston/Audley End to Cambridge/Cambridge North. Rail services via Cambridge are planned to resume normal service from Monday, January 6. Click here for more information from NationalRail.co.uk

Lawrence Bowman, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia said: “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.”   

Other significant weekend work in early January in eastern England:

Signal engineering work will be taking place on the Great Eastern Mainline from Norwich to Ipswich and between Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds. Rail replacement bus services will be operating between Ipswich and Norwich/Bury St Edmunds on:

• Saturday and Sunday, January 4 and 5;
• Saturday and Sunday, January 11 and 12; and
• Sunday, January 19.

(*NOTE: Rail replacement services extend from Bury St Edmunds to Ely and Cambridge on Sunday, January 19)