London Paddington and King's Cross stations set to close over Christmas - other affected stations

Two main train stations in London are set to close over the Christmas period, potentially causing significant travel disruption. Network Rail said London Paddington will shut on Christmas Eve and on December 27 due to engineering work, with London King's Cross also being closed on Christmas Eve.

The closure of Paddington station, which is one end of the Great Western Railway line to Devon and Cornwall, will result in the suspension of service to Heathrow Airport on December 24 and 27. Meanwhile, long-distance services will start and end at Reading, with connecting trains to and from Ealing Broadway or London Waterloo.

Between December 23 and New Year's Day, Southeastern services, which typically run to or from London Victoria, will be redirected to Blackfriars, Charing Cross, and Cannon Street. Beyond London, there will be service disruptions due to an engineering project near Southampton and construction activities for the new Cambridge South station.

Network Rail also confirmed that no trains will operate on Christmas Day, with a very limited service running on Boxing Day. Lawrence Bowman, network strategy director for Network Rail, said: “We understand how important this time of year is for our passengers for reconnecting with family and friends.

“With more than 96% of the network open for business as usual, we have tried as far as possible to design our investment projects around our passengers and keep disruption to a minimum. We are carrying out some significant projects, not as many as past years, but still 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 and target the quietest times, overnight, weekends and Christmas Day and Boxing Day to ensure we keep what disruption there is to an absolute minimum and will always looks to use diversions rather than put people on buses. But some routes will see disruption as we upgrade the railway, so it’s important that passengers check their journeys before travelling.”