While many people will be braving the roads in different parts of Wales in order to get home for Christmas, others will be relying on train travel to see their loved ones over the festive period. But as ever, Christmas promises to bring with it a fair share of travel chaos and disruption, with a warning that there will be “significant changes” to journeys between Wales and London.
While there are no major planned alterations to services before Christmas Day, from December 27 no main line trains will run to or from London Paddington until December 30. Most long-distance services will start from or terminate at Reading, where customers will be able to pick up connecting trains to Ealing Broadway from where London Underground services run into central London. However, trains from south Wales will not stop at Reading and will instead be diverted into London Euston. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter.
Disruption for those travelling between Wales and London is set to be an occurrence every Christmas until the end of the decade due to the work on the new HS2 station. In London itself, Liverpool Street station will be closed from Christmas Day until January 2 due to renewal work at Bishopsgate Tunnel and improvements to the passenger experience. Travellers are advised to use Victoria line Tube services from Walthamstow Central or Seven Sisters.
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This is part of wider disruption due to engineering work, with Network Rail saying tens of thousands of engineers will work on around 400 projects over Christmas and the New Year. You can read more about that here. According to Great Western Railway (GWR), on December 27, 28 and 29 there will be “no train services between London Paddington and Ealing Broadway”. There will be limited services between London Euston and Swansea/Carmarthen (via Bristol Parkway) but trains will not stop at Reading.
GWR operations director Richard Rowland said: “This is a really complex operation, and we have worked hard to make sure people get to where they want to. We will run an hourly service from the south-west of England – Cornwall, Devon – and an hourly service from South Wales which will go into Euston. We will then have several trains which will terminate at Reading, and people can connect there, and we will also have trains to Ealing Broadway for those making more local journeys. They will be able to connect there on to the London Underground and into London that way.
“It is really important to us that we can keep customers moving and get them to where they need to go this Christmas. One of the reasons we chose Euston was that it’s most convenient for many of our customers who are making journeys beyond West London. We’ve worked carefully with the team at Network Rail who manage that station to make sure we’ve got extra staff and managers to help customers. We will be transporting a little bit of Great Western Railway to Euston to keep people moving.”
Meanwhile, Transport for Wales (TfW) services will start to close down at 8pm on Christmas Eve and again at the same time on New Year’s Eve. There will be no train services on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, and only trains on the Cardiff/Barry Island/Penarth/Vale of Glamorgan line will run on New Year’s Day. Trains will run on December 27, but services will start later than usual.
According to TfW, on December 27: “All Manchester Piccadilly services will start/terminate at Shrewsbury with road replacement transport in place between Shrewsbury and Stockport. Ticket acceptance will be in place at Stockport for passengers wishing to travel to Manchester Piccadilly. Crewe to Chester/Shrewsbury shuttles are cancelled with road replacement transport in place. Crewe to Chester/Shrewsbury shuttles are cancelled with road replacement transport in place. North Wales Coast services will now start / terminate at Chester with road replacement transport between Chester and Crewe. Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway services will also be affected. Please check before you travel.”
In addition, between December 28 and 31: “Buses will replace trains between Shrewsbury and Crewe. Northbound services to Manchester Piccadilly will divert via Chester and terminate at Crewe. Southbound services from Manchester Piccadilly will start at Crewe and divert via Chester. A shuttle train service will operate between Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly all day at the usual times. Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway services will also be affected. Please check before you travel.”