Liverpool Street, the busiest railway station in the country, will be closed for more than a week over the Christmas period, Network Rail has revealed.
This is in addition to the closure of Paddington station – the second busiest – that will involve some intercity Great Western Railway services being switched to Euston, initially for three days.
Liverpool Street mainline station will be closed from Christmas Day, with services not resuming until Thursday, January 2.
Greater Anglia services – including the Stansted Express - will be diverted via Stratford, which will be used as the train company’s London terminus. Passengers will be able to change onto the Central line or Jubilee line at Stratford to reach central London.
Network Rail said that London Overground services would terminate or start from at London Fields – including those from Chingford, which do not normally call at London Fields.
However there is likely to be a big service reduction, with only two trains an hour to Chingford via Walthamstow Central, one train an hour to Enfield Town and one to Cheshunt.
Network Rail and TfL said passengers should use Victoria line services from Walthamstow Central and Seven Sisters or London bus services.
There will be no Thameslink trains between St Pancras and Harpenden, and no East Midlands Railway services between London St Pancras and Bedford, between Saturday December 21 and Sunday December 29 due to work on the Midland Main Line.
This will cause massive problems for passengers hoping to use the train to travel to and from Luton airport.
Passengers who usually take the train north from St Pancras will need to use different London stations and connecting buses to reach their destinations.
Passengers will be able to book journeys over the festive season from this weekend as timetables are confirmed.
The Standard has already revealed that the closure of Paddington – to allow work to the new HS2 station at Old Oak Common – will affect Great Western and Elizabeth line services, initially between December 27 and 29 and then each Christmas until the end of the decade.
Other closures of the tracks in and out of Paddington are also likely. Many GWR trains will start or terminate at Reading or Ealing Broadway.
Network Rail engineers will, as usual, use the drop-off in commuters over Christmas to carry out major engineering work.
There are typically 50 to 60 per cent fewer passengers between Christmas and New Year than in November.
Helen Hamlin, Network Rail’s director of system operations, said: “The festive period is a unique opportunity, when fewer people are travelling, to do big pieces of work to make services better, more punctual and more reliable.
“The major projects we’re undertaking would otherwise take many weekends to complete and cause much more disruption.
“Whilst roads are busier during the holidays, it’s actually one of the quietest times on the railway, meaning we can improve things whilst causing less disruption to passengers and freight flows.
The work will include the replacement of 45 sets of points, the rebuilding of four bridges, installing 40km of new signalling cables, renewing 17 level crossings and testing and switching on seven new signalling systems.
In addition, re-signalling around Crewe will mean no trains passing through the station on December 27 and no direct service to Liverpool and a reduced service to Manchester from Saturday December 28 until Friday January 3.
Network Rail said that more than 95 per cent of the UK rail network would be open as normal.
