Christmas train disruption: Strikes and engineering works to cause havoc during festive rush

As pre-Christmas travel accelerates, rail passengers planning inter-city journeys face multiple problems from strikes and engineering works.

Christmas markets are getting under way in London, York and Edinburgh this weekend, with those in Birmingham and Manchester already open.

But trains will be disrupted on Sunday, with hundreds of miles of the CrossCountry rail network closed because of a strike by members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers about rostering and Sunday working.

The RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said peace talks on Wednesday had been “sabotaged” by management. While CrossCountry told travellers “We remain hopeful that the matter can be resolved without the need for a strike”, the union made it clear the stoppage would go ahead.

CrossCountry trains will not run north of York or south of Reading, and services beyond Exeter to South Devon and Cornwall will also be axed. Buses will replace trains on the Cheltenham-Bristol and Derby-Nottingham lines, and the airport link from Cambridge to Stansted will be closed. The operator said: “With fewer trains available we expect all our services, and any replacement bus services, to be very busy.”

Further strikes are set for 26 November, 8-9 December, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

Train managers and station staff on Virgin Trains’ West Coast network have voted overwhelmingly to strike in a dispute about matching a pay award to train drivers.

The RMT has yet to announce any industrial action, for which it must give two weeks’ notice. If a strike goes ahead, Virgin Trains says it aims to run a majority of services from London to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.

Disputes involving RMT members over the role of guards at Southern, Northern, Merseyrail, Greater Anglia and South Western Railway are continuing.

Widespread winter engineering work is taking place, with Blackpool cut off from the national rail network until late January. Links from the West Coast Main Line at Preston to the resort’s North and South stations have been cut as electrification, track and signalling work takes place.

Martin Frobisher, Network Rail’s London North Western route managing director, said: “We have made a great start to this phase of the Great North Rail Project. I am confident the short-term pain will be worth the long-term gain of transformed train travel in future.”

A fleet of coaches is connecting stations in the Fylde peninsula with Preston, with scheduled journey times between Blackpool and Manchester increased from 70-80 minutes to two hours.

But the rail-replacement bus service has had a troubled start, with the Lancashire Evening Post reporting traffic delays leading to missed connections.

The London Overground link from Gospel Oak to Barking closes for eight weeks from Saturday evening, 18 November.

Christmas and the New Year is a period of low demand, when big engineering projects are carried out. This winter the capital is worst hit, with closures on lines to the east, south and west.

No trains will run from London Liverpool Street to Shenfield in Essex from Saturday 23 December to Monday 1 January inclusive – with passengers urged to travel to Newbury Park Tube station, a minor station on the Hainault loop of the Central Line, for rail-replacement buses.

The work is to prepare for the Elizabeth Line, which is due to open in December 2018. The giant project will also disrupt London Paddington on the west side of the capital, with service reductions on 23 December and no trains from Christmas Eve to 27 December inclusive.

The Heathrow Express airport link will either be running half-hourly services or be cancelled altogether between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, except for 31 December when a normal Sunday service with trains every 15 minutes will operate.

For passengers south of the capital, four key stations are closed from 23 December to 1 January inclusive: Charing Cross, Cannon Street, Waterloo East and London Bridge. “Services will be either cancelled or diverted to start/terminate at London Victoria or London Waterloo,” says Network Rail.

In the West Midlands, the link between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton will be disrupted from Christmas Eve to 2 January.

In Manchester, the key link between Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations will be closed on Christmas Eve and for three days over the New Year. The key 20-mile stretch of the West Coast Main Line between Preston and Lancaster will be closed between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.

Disruption continues into the New Year, with track-renewal work at Newcastle station which will see train services delayed, cancelled and curtailed, particularly on the line south to Durham and York.