TRAIN services during the Christmas and New Year holiday will be less badly affected than last year as Network Rail undertakes a less intensive programme of engineering improvement work.

Targeted at one of the quietest times of the year for rail travel, the work is being concentrated mainly during the weekend of 27 and 28 December, when many thousands of engineers will be working on a £50 million investment programme covering several parts of the country.

At Clapham Junction, south London, major track renewal will affect routes to Staines and Putney from 25 December until 4 January, although main lines through the station remain open.

Track and overhead line work between London Liverpool Street and Ilford will close the routes to Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich from 25 to 28 December.
Elsewhere in London, East London Line extension and Thameslink upgrade work at London Bridge and New Cross Gate will close the Thames-link route at Blackfriars during the same period.

With closure of the West Coast main line south of Coventry for signalling work at Milton Keynes, Virgin Trains will be running an hourly service of up to 15-coach diesel Voyager trains between Birmingham New Street and London Euston via the Chiltern line during the weekend of 27/28 December.

In Scotland, engineering work will focus on completion of the £85 million Glasgow Central resignalling project and the commissioning of a new £200 million West of Scotland signalling centre at Cowlairs, north of the city.

Glasgow Central high level station will close to trains from 26 until 30 December, with reduced services continuing through the low level.

Enhancement work near Laurencekirk will halt Dundee to Aberdeen trains on 3 and 4 January.