Everything you need to know about rail disruption at Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Norwich, London Liverpool Street and Cambridge over the Christmas period

Commuters should be aware that train lines from Suffolk will face significant disruption over the Christmas period.

Network Rail has warned that London Liverpool Street station will close for eight days later this month and other work will shut all lines in the Cambridge area until January 5.

Additional planned projects will also lead to the cancellation of services from Ipswich to Norwich and Bury St Edmunds, although most lines in the east of England are expected to remain open.

Here are all the projects that will affect the region over the festive period:

When will trains stop running for Christmas?

Train services are expected to finish early on Christmas Eve, with passengers urged to check the timings for their last services, and will not operate on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The exception to this is the Stansted Express, which is set to run on a revised timetable from Tottenham Hale on Boxing Day.

No rail replacement buses will be available through this period.

London Liverpool Street

Commuters should also be aware that London Liverpool Street will be shut from December 25 to January 1 to allow for work to take place.

All Greater Anglia services will run to and from Stratford, with the exception of the Stansted Express.

The London Overground will run to and from London Fields. Passengers should use Victoria line services from Walthamstow Central and Seven Sisters or local bus services for journeys during the closure period.

All c2c trains which would typically run to and from London Liverpool Street will instead run to and from London Fenchurch Street via West Ham.

Engineers will be working on approaches at Bishopsgate tunnel, which includes the installation of steel support girders and work to repair existing steelwork to prevent corrosion, alongside new ticket gates.

Preparation work for a project to renew the roof will also take place, which will see scaffolding placed at Exchange Square, which Network Rail hoped would improve the drainage system and make the roof more resilient in the case of future storms.

Cambridge works

In addition, 12 days of work is planned to rail lines in the Cambridge area to support the construction of Cambridge South station.

This will shut all rail lines in the area.

No rail services will take place between Royston/Elsenham and Cambridge/Cambridge North from December 27 and January 1.

Trains to Bury St Edmunds will also be affected, with rail replacement buses from all stations set to be in place from December 27.

Trains between Elsenham and Audley End will resume on January 2, while rail replacement buses will continue from Royston to Cambridge.

Normal service via Cambridge is expected to return on January 6.

In addition, track switches and crossings will be renewed at Foxton from Christmas Eve, which will require the closure of a level crossing on the A10, with a diversion route for vehicles in place.

Projects during this period include a complete modelling of Shepreath branch junction, alongside the connection of two tracks to the network plus the installation of a new system to operate signals between Cambridge North and Ely as part of the Cambridge re-signalling project.

Beaulieu Park station

Construction of the new Beaulieu Park station, in Chelmsford, will continue over four days from Christmas Day to bring a third line through the site.

Bus replacements will run on the Greater Anglia line between Billericay and Witham on December 27 and 28, while services via Chelmsford will resume on December 29.

Ipswich to Norwich line

Finally, buses will ferry passengers between Suffolk and Norfolk for a few weekends after the New Year.

Rail replacement services will run between Ipswich and Norwich as well as the Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds line on January 4 and 5, January 11 and 12 and January 19.

On January 19, the service to Bury St Edmunds will extend to Ely and Cambridge.

This is to allow signal engineering work to take place.

Lawrence Bowman, Networks Rail’s route director for Anglia, said the firm was continuing to deliver major improvements to the Anglia rail network over the festive period.

He felt this would offer a wealth of benefits to customers and passengers.

“With two big station projects, a huge re-signalling programme around Cambridge and improvement work at the UK's busiest station, we’ve got a lot to do over the festive period to get the work done while trains are not running,” Mr Bowman said.

“It is important to allow our skilled engineers the time to be able to work safely on the track while trains are not running, and so I want to thank everyone for their patience while we deliver this important work to improve the railway."

Martin Beable, managing director at Greater Anglia, said that while most services will run over the period, engineering works further out would affect some passengers travelling to London and Cambridge.

Mr Beable added: “We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the service alterations, and we urge passengers to check before they travel as some journeys may take longer than normal.”

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