NETWORK Rail is encouraging passengers to plan their journeys early, to avoid the Christmas and New Year upgrade work.

Passengers travelling to the south and west of London are advised to plan their journeys as early as possible, ahead of a programme of upgrade work taking place on the country’s rail network over the festive period.

From Christmas Eve (December 24) to the early hours of Tuesday, December 27, and on January 1 and January 2, this essential programme of investment will deliver another slice of the £800m Waterloo and South West upgrade that will eventually provide a 30 percent capacity boost at London’s Waterloo station.

Passengers travelling with South West Trains should be aware that services will begin to wind down on the evening of December 24, with Waterloo station closed by 8pm, so passengers are advised to complete their journeys well in advance of this and as early as possible. A number of platforms will also be out of use during the day to prepare for maintenance works.

Services return on the morning of December 27 and will operate an amended service until Wednesday, January 3, when all lines are expected to return to a normal service. In addition, South West Trains will operate a number of late-night services on New Year’s Eve.

Becky Lumlock, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “Waterloo is already the busiest station in Britain and the number of passengers using the railway is continuing to grow, so it’s essential that we make the most of opportunities such as Christmas, when passenger numbers drop by up to 50 percent, to invest in improving the railway for passengers through our railway upgrade plan.

“Over the festive period, we’ll be investing £4.5m to complete a number of improvements in and around the Waterloo area which are vital to delivering the £800m Waterloo and south west upgrade.”

She continued: “The vast majority of the network to the south and west of London will remain open, but there will be changes to services throughout the festive period and journeys may take longer, which is why we want passengers to plan their journeys as early as possible.”

Upgrades to be delivered over Christmas include replacing sets of points (the equipment which allows trains to move between tracks) at Queenstown Road, and work on platforms 1-4 at London Waterloo. In total, the equivalent of more than 15,000 hours will go into completing the upgrades over Christmas.

Christian Roth, managing director of South West Trains, said: “The vast majority of our network is open across the festive season but we do advise passengers to check ahead of their journey.

“On New Year’s Eve, we are running some extra services to help passengers enjoy the festivities. As well as there being no major engineering work planned during the day and a near normal Saturday service running, a special service will run after midnight which we hope will make things easier for those travelling to see in the New Year.”

A breakdown of how journeys may be affected can be found by visiting nationalrail.co.uk.