Christmas engineering works to close Paddington and Birmingham New Street

Railway engineering work will disrupt some of Britain’s busiest routes over the Christmas period, with London Paddington and Birmingham New Street both closing for five days. The works aim to improve reliability and capacity, while most routes are expected to remain open; passengers will need to plan around diversions, partial closures and replacement buses.

Network Rail plans about £152m of work. Paddington services to Wales and western England will generally start or finish at Reading from 27 December to 4 January, while Elizabeth line services west of Paddington and Heathrow Express will not resume until 31 January. New Street will close from Christmas Eve until 29 December, and East Coast Main Line journeys via Doncaster may take two hours longer; the Great Eastern mainline will also close for 10 days from Christmas Day.