‘WORST EVER’ TRAIN CHAOS
‘20m Christmas journeys hit’
TRAVELLERS face the “worst ever” Christmas delays as railway works cause chaos.
Five of seven mainline train routes will be closed during 11 days of work in the holiday fortnight.
Major delays are expected, with some journey times doubling as passengers attempt to make more than 20million journeys.
Festive air passengers will also be hit as services to Gatwick and Heathrow are cut.
Rail industry experts have branded the Christmas works schedule the “worst ever”.
Travel expert Ian Baldry of IBPTS travel consultants said: “Works taking place this Christmas are even worse than last Christmas, which had the previous biggest ever Christmas works schedule.
“Passengers face chaos. Network Rail don’t realise the impact their works have on people trying to get home for Christmas.
“Travellers are sick of works – and then, after Christmas, there are January fare increases. Passengers have had enough.”
The delays will hit services from London Paddington to the West, London Bridge to the South-East, London Liverpool Street to the East, London Euston to Glasgow and London Waterloo to the SouthWest. Major stations including London Paddington will shut, while the London to Glasgow west coast main line will be severed.
The Gatwick Express and Heathrow Express shuttles are also pegged for closure.
London to the West will be hit by eight days’ work at London Paddington, which will shut from the evening of December 23 to the morning of December 28, cutting Great Western Railway services.
Trains start from London Marylebone or Slough instead. Half the Paddington lines will also be shut from December 28 to 31.
Major London stations – London Bridge, Charing Cross, Waterloo East, Cannon Street plus south-east London stations – will have no Southeastern trains from December 23 to January 1. The cross-London north-south Thameslink route will shut from December
23 to January 1, with no services from central London stations.
Liverpool Street will have no Greater Anglia trains on December
23, 24, 27 and New Year’s Day. And the London to Ipswich service, which usually takes 1hr 11min, will double to 2hr 17min.
The London to Glasgow west coast main line will be severed, with the 20-mile stretch between Preston and Lancaster covered by buses on Christmas Eve and December 27.
South Western Railway will have all lines shut and diversions between Southampton Central and Eastleigh from December 24 to January 1, and also to Fareham on December 30 and 31. Cross Country trains will take 40min longer. Virgin Trains East Coast will cut Leeds services on December 27.
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies and Network Rail, said: “Carrying out this vital work over Christmas and New Year, when fewer people use the railway, will help to minimise disruption while ensuring Britain has the railway it needs to prosper.” Network Rail added: “We are making another significant investment to improve and grow the railway.
“The railway is open for business this Christmas. The vast majority of the network will be unaffected by engineering work.”