Grantham rail passengers urged to plan ahead as King's Cross closed for six days over Christmas

Network Rail and train operators on the East Coast Main Line are urging Grantham passengers to plan ahead to avoid disappointment if travelling to and from London between Christmas Day and Wednesday, December 30, as major work takes place.

No trains will run into or out of King’s Cross between December 25 and 30 and a reduced service will be in place from December 31 to January 3.

The work is part of the £1.2billion East Coast upgrade of the East Coast main Line.

Network Rail has reduced the amount of work which will take place on Christmas Eve to enable some additional services to run on this date. However, services on Christmas Eve are expected to be very busy, so passengers should plan their journey ahead of time, and will need a seat reservation.

Over the six-day closure, Network Rail will be carrying out complex and crucial work to reconstruct, strengthen and divert Camden Sewer, which runs beneath the railway. This requires a large area of track bed to be lifted up, which means it can only be done safely when no trains are running. Work will also take place to install new overhead line equipment, which powers electric and bi-mode trains, as well as work to renew the tracks.

Passengers are strongly advised to only travel to or from London on the East Coast Main Line if absolutely necessary, and to seek alternative travel arrangements where possible. Passengers can see how their journeys will be affected by visiting eastcoastupgrade.co.uk or their train operator’s website. If people must travel, they should allow plenty of time as services which are running are expected to be busy.

Grand Central and Hull Trains restarted operations on December 3 after suspending services during the recent national lockdown. Grand Central will not run any services between December 25 and January 1 and Hull Trains will not run between December 25 and December 30.

Ed Akers, Principal Programme Sponsor for Network Rail’s East Coast Upgrade, said: “We understand this Christmas is particularly special after what has been a difficult year, and that people want to spend time with their families if they can. Our teams have been working hard over the past few months to do as much improvement work as possible without disrupting services. We now require the six-day closure at King’s Cross so we can reach a major milestone on the East Coast Upgrade, which when complete, will bring a more reliable railway for passengers.”

After Christmas, a vital stage of work on another East Coast Upgrade project to build a new section of railway at Werrington, north of Peterborough, is taking place. Progress has been made to construct a new tunnel, which will allow slower freight services to dive under the East Coast Main Line instead of crossing it, making more space for additional passenger services.

Over a nine-day period from January 16 to 24, the concrete box structure, which will carry the new lines, will be pushed into place. This means there will be limited services on the East Coast Main Line between Grantham and Peterborough over this nine-day period, and some passengers may have to complete part of their journey by rail replacement services. People travelling to and from Scotland may additionally need to change trains at Newcastle during this time. All passengers who need to travel are strongly advised to plan their journeys in advance.