Network Rail: Liverpool Street station to close for eight days over Christmas and New Year

The central London station will be closed from December 25 to January 1 due to planned engineering works.

This includes work to renew the shed roof panels, add more ticket gates for platforms 1-10 and work within Bishopsgate tunnel.

Greater Anglia services, including Stansted Express, will be diverted via Stratford. Meanwhile London Overground services will terminate at London Fields.

Network Rail said passengers should use Victoria line services from Walthamstow Central and Seven Sisters or local bus services to complete their journeys during this closure.

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Paddington station closures

The Liverpool Street station closure will combine with disrupted services at Paddington station, which is due to work on the new HS2 stop at Old Oak Common.

No services will call at London Paddington between Friday 27 and Sunday December 29.

Some services will instead be diverted to/from London Euston, with the majority of trains starting and stopping at Reading and Ealing Broadway.

Passengers for London can change at Ealing Broadway and take a Transport for London (TfL) service into the city, using either the District or Central lines.

Helen Hamlin, Network Rail’s director of system operations, commented on the closures: “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% of the UK rail network would be open as normal.