Paddington and King’s Cross will be shut on Christmas Eve – plunging thousands of holiday plans into chaos

•  Paddington Station is due to be closed on December 27 as work continues

Two of Britain’s biggest rail stations will be shut on Christmas Eve – one of the most hectic travel days of the year as passengers dash home to spend the festive break with family and friends.

King’s Cross and Paddington in London will be brought to a standstill by engineering works, affecting thousands heading for Yorkshire, the North East, Scotland, the West Country and South Wales.

It will also mean that diversion routes are likely to be very busy.

The works are part of at least 20 major schemes being carried out across the country during the festive period.

King’s Cross and Paddington typically handle more than 100,000 arrivals and departures each day.

Two of Britain’s biggest rail stations will be shut on Christmas Eve – one of the most hectic travel days of the year as passengers dash home to spend the festive break with family and friends

Paddington Station is  due to be closed on December 27 as work continues for the HS2 line at Old Oak Common in West London and new track is laid at West Drayton, near Heathrow

Paddington Station is also due to be closed on December 27 as work continues for the HS2 line at Old Oak Common in West London and new track is laid at West Drayton, near Heathrow.

The disruption follows good news for hard-pressed passengers after a deal was finally struck between rail companies and the RMT union, removing the threat of strikes which had blighted last year’s festive period. Drivers’ union Aslef, which is still in dispute with rail firms, has already held a week of strikes, the last day of which was on Friday.

Network Rail stressed that the work during the Christmas and the New Year break is ‘slimmed down’ compared with previous years, and that 96 per cent of the network will be open for ‘business as usual’.

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It added that most of the work will take place during the traditional Christmas Day and Boxing Day shutdown. But diversions will mean longer journeys or replacement bus services on a slew of routes on several days before and after that.

Tory MP Karl McCartney, a member of the Transport Select Committee, said: ‘This news will be very disappointing for the many who need to travel to stay with their families for this special time of the year. It will lead to packed trains and a very uncomfortable start to Christmas for some. But hopefully, as Christmas Eve is a Sunday, most travellers will elect to travel earlier than then.’

Engineering work will also affect services around Cambridge and Chelmsford, Essex, lines into Birmingham New Street, those between Bristol and South Wales, and routes in Devon, Cornwall, Shropshire and Hampshire.

Mr McCartney, whose Lincoln constituency is affected by the King’s Cross closure, added: ‘Saying that only four per cent of the network is affected deliberately ignores how important that part of the network is. Everyone can see through their schoolboy spin in saying miles of track on a branch line has the same impact as the equivalent miles on a major line.’

As well as King’s Cross and Paddington, Network Rail has revealed disruption will affect two more major stations in London. At Victoria, Southeastern services are being diverted to Blackfriars, Charing Cross and Cannon Street between December 23 and New Year’s Day. Also, Fenchurch Street will be closed on Christmas Eve and December 27, meaning replacement bus services between the capital and Essex.

Lawrence Bowman, network strategy director for Network Rail, said: ‘We understand how important this time of year is for our passengers as they reconnect with family and friends.

As well as King’s Cross and Paddington, Network Rail has revealed disruption will affect two more major stations in London. At Victoria, Southeastern services are being diverted to Blackfriars, Charing Cross and Cannon Street between December 23 and New Year’s Day

‘But with more than 96 per cent of the network open for business as usual, we have tried as far as possible to design our investment projects around our passengers and to keep disruption to a minimum.

‘We are carrying out some significant projects, not as many as in past years, but still it is some £127 million 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. We also target the quietest times – overnight, weekends and Christmas Day and Boxing Day to ensure we keep what disruption there is to an absolute minimum.

‘We will also always look to use diversions rather than put people on buses. But some routes will see disruption as we upgrade the railway, so it is important that passengers always check their journeys before travelling.’

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