Travelling during the Christmas and New Year festive period? Be in the know before you go!

The Christmas and New Year holiday period covered by this travel guide runs from Tuesday 23 December 2025 until Friday 2 January 2026 inclusive.

There will be lots of planned essential engineering works and upgrades taking place as Network Rail works to improve the railway. In addition, some train companies will be making changes to their timetable, and to some train times, to match services to the number of customers travelling.

Planning and checking your journey

You can plan and check your journey before you travel using the National Rail Journey Planner (below).Important information and useful travel advice relating to your journey may show with warning symbols on your journey results.

There will be no National Rail services on Christmas Day as usual this year. On Boxing Day most train operators will have no service - however, there will be a very limited train service operated by a small number of train operators (Chiltern Railways, London Overground, Merseyrail, ScotRail, Southern and Stansted Express).

Please note that Journey Planner information is subject to change as timetables are still being finalised. Please continue to check your journey until you are due to set off – this will give you a chance to adjust your journey plans in advance if necessary, and avoid any last-minute disappointment.