Christmas and New Year 2024 Travel Summary

Check before you travel this Christmas and New Year

The next Christmas and New Year Bank Holiday period will be from 24 December 2024 until 2 January 2025. This travel summary page will start being updated approximately 12 weeks prior to those dates. We look forward to your return visit then.

There are planned essential engineering works and upgrades taking place as Network Rail works to improve the railway, so we suggest you plan your journeys over the Christmas and New Year holiday in advance.

Some train services are affected and there will be disruption on many routes between Christmas Eve (Tuesday 24 December 2024) and Thursday 2 January 2025 inclusive.

Some train companies will be making changes to their timetable, and to some train times, to match services to the number of customers travelling.

So, be in the know before you go and check before you travel using the National Rail Journey Planner below.

Please check our Status and Disruptions page for up-to-date real-time information.

Find out more about your rights if a train changes.

Christmas and New Year changes being made by your train company

​​​​​​​Details of the service each train company will be providing will be listed below nearer to the time (the pages are currently showing information for other bank holidays). 

• Avanti West Coast

• c2c

• Caledonian Sleeper

• Chiltern Railways

• CrossCountry

• East Midlands Railway

• Elizabeth line

• Gatwick Express

• Grand Central

• Great Northern

• Great Western Railway

• Greater Anglia

• Heathrow Express

• Hull Trains

• Island Line

• LNER

• London Northwestern Railway

• London Overground

• Lumo

• Merseyrail

• Northern

• ScotRail

• South Western Railway

• Southeastern

• Southern

• Stansted Express

• Thameslink

• TransPennine Express

• Transport for Wales

• West Midlands Railway

Major Improvement work on your railway during Christmas and New Year

A considerable number of engineering and improvement projects will be undertaken at Christmas and New Year. The impact of this work will show in Journey Planners (although please take note of any Service Updates showing with a warning triangle on your journey).

For more information on the work taking place, you can find details of all forthcoming engineering works on our website.

Social media

For the latest rail travel news, why not follow National Rail on X? Over 1 million people follow @nationalrailenq on X. Our social media team are available 24/7 (except Christmas Day) to answer your rail queries and supply you with the latest real-time travel updates.