Waterloo and Liverpool Street stations will close over the Christmas period to allow essential engineering work.
At Liverpool Street, the station will shut to enable the installation of new glass panels above the concourse. The works will also include the replacement of the ageing drainage system.
Waterloo will close to allow installation of new rail points at nearby Queenstown Road.
No trains will run between Stratford and Liverpool Street from Christmas Day to New Year’s Day. Waterloo services will stop from Christmas Day until 28 December, with a very limited service resuming until 4 January.
A two-year project at Liverpool Street has seen engineers replace panels over the platforms that were installed in the 1990s. These had cracked and become covered in lichen. The next stage will focus on replacing Georgian window panes over the concourse, necessitating a full closure for safety reasons.
The drainage system, dating back to the 1890s, will also be replaced as it is unable to cope with modern storm levels. The scheme has cost Network Rail £23m.
Huge cherry pickers will be used to remove the glass panels, making closure of the concourse unavoidable.
At Waterloo, the line will be closed to allow points replacement at Queenstown Road. The West Coast mainline out of Euston will operate only as far as Milton Keynes from Christmas Day to 5 January. Victoria and Vauxhall stations, as well as the Mildmay Overground line, will also be closed for several days. Passengers are advised to check travel information with their rail operator, Network Rail, or Transport for London.
Chris Denham of Network Rail said most of the railway would operate normally, but Christmas is the ideal time for engineering work due to lower passenger numbers. “It’s the quietest period on the railway. In some areas, you are talking 50% of normal passenger numbers. So for the massive work we need to do this Christmas for instance, it is the most logical time of year to do it. Particularly this year, as many people won’t have to go back to work until January 5th and that gives us a good chunk of time to do really difficult engineering.”
