Commuters are being warned of Christmas rail disruption

EAST Midlands Trains is urging passengers to check before they travel over Christmas and new year as Network Rail works on upgrading the railway.

The scale of the works over the festive period will mean far fewer services to and from London St Pancras.

On Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, trains to London will terminate at Corby, and a coach service will run between Corby and Bedford to connect with Thameslink trains to Luton, Luton Airport Parkway and St Pancras. Trains from St Pancras northbound will terminate at Bedford. Coaches will run between Bedford and Corby, where customers can connect with trains to Kettering, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield.

As usual, there will be no East Midlands Trains services running on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Jake Kelly, managing director of, East Midlands Trains, said: “We know people will be using our train services to visit friends and family over Christmas, and many people will still need to travel to and from work. We urge anyone travelling to check as soon as possible.”

Rob McIntosh, route managing director for Network Rail, said: “Christmas is our once-a-yearopportunity to carry out extensive improvement work without affecting passengers. We have dozens of projects which will be completed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day with no impact on train services. These projects will enable us to keep operating a safe, reliable railway.

“Our railway is up to 50 per cent quieter than usual during Christmas and the New Year, so where our planned upgrade work is more complicated to deliver, we take the extra days either side of Christmas to minimise the disruption caused.

“In all cases, we work closely with the train companies to make sure passengers have accurate, timely information.”

There are also amended and or reduced timetables on the days between Christmas and new year on local and London routes.

Passengers are advised to check before they travel.