Passengers travelling to and from London Liverpool Street over the Christmas and New Year period are being advised to plan ahead as Network Rail undertakes a significant 10-day programme of engineering work at Forest Gate.
The investment forms part of a wider package of railway renewals across East London and East Anglia, aimed at improving reliability, maintaining safety and supporting future passenger and freight operations on some of the UK's busiest rail corridors.
While most of the rail network will remain open throughout the festive period, engineers will take advantage of lower passenger numbers between Christmas and New Year to complete major infrastructure upgrades that would be difficult to undertake during normal operations.
At the heart of the programme is the Great Eastern Main Line at Forest Gate, a vital route serving hundreds of passenger services each day and playing a key role in the strategic freight network.
Engineers will renew six sets of points, alongside associated rail, sleepers and ballast, helping to ensure trains can continue to operate safely and reliably on one of the country's most heavily used routes into London.
Additional works across East London include:
- Rail, sleeper and ballast renewals at Barking station on the Tilbury line.
- Platform canopy repairs and roof sheeting replacement at Forest Gate station.
- Renewal of two sets of points at Stratford.
- General maintenance work on the Weaver Line.
Across East Anglia, Network Rail will also deliver a series of improvement projects including:
- Platform repairs at Southend Victoria station.
- Renewal of three sets of points at Lowestoft.
- Signalling upgrades as part of the Cambridge Resignalling Project (C3R), together with overhead line and track improvements between Cambridge and Ely.
- Sleeper replacement and track renewals at Trowse Swing Bridge.
- General maintenance work on the Southend Victoria and Southminster routes, as well as at Norwich.
Most of the work will take place during the traditional Christmas Day and Boxing Day shutdown period. However, the major Forest Gate renewal programme will continue until 3 January 2027 and will affect both Greater Anglia and Elizabeth line services.
Track renewals at Barking station will also impact c2c services for several days between 27 and 29 December.
Industry Focus on Reliability
Speaking about the programme, Martin Beable, Chief Operating Officer for GBR Anglia, said:
"While most of the railway will remain open as usual over the festive period, we'll be taking advantage of a quieter time on the network to carry out significant improvements at Forest Gate and Barking station.
"We're also carrying out lots of smaller projects across East Anglia on Christmas Day and Boxing Day which will help us maintain a safe, reliable and efficient railway for the hundreds of passenger and freight services that use these routes every day.
"We're grateful for passengers' patience while this work takes place and would encourage anyone travelling over Christmas and New Year to check their journey before setting off."
Image credit: Network Rail
