Train Travel Woes for London this Christmas

These have been in rail planners for sometime.

Although Paddington is closed, there will be a service of trains to the West/South West/South Wales from Ealing Broadway. By then the route from London to Oxford from Marylebone should also be open.

For anyone finding themselves at Ealing Broadway and wondering about a place to have a pint or get a great bite to eat I can highly recommend getting on bus 10 and traveling less than 10 minutes to Pitshanger Lane to the most wonderful Duke of Kent! Our favorite outside of London pub thus far.

More troubles in the second article/link that Lola has given.

"An extensive rail improvements programme involving up to 200 projects will leave five London stations fully or partially closed over the festive period.

The news comes as workers at Gatwick are set to vote on a Christmas walkout over a pensions row, and Unite expressed concerned that the closure of a baggage carrier could affect service at four major airports.

Rail passengers will face disruption for up to 14 days, with closures at Paddington, Liverpool Street, Charing Cross, Waterloo and Cannon Street affecting travel between many parts of the country.

There will also be no trains to or from London Liverpool Street between December 24 and January 2 as improvements are carried out.

Work at New Cross, south London, as part of the Thameslink programme means no Southeastern trains will operate to London Bridge and Charing Cross from December 24-28, apart from the Hastings services which will be diverted to London Bridge.

Those planning to fly abroad for the holiday period could also face chaos as workers at Gatwick airport are threatening to strike in a row over pensions.

Passengers could also be hit with further disruption as a baggage carrier plans to close operations at Birmingham, Gatwick, Manchester and Newcastle airports for financial reasons."

Looks like the bus may be the best option in some parts!

Do a search on 'travel chaos' and 'Daily Telegraph' and it seems it features as nearly much as extreme weather articles in the 'Daily Express'. Maybe not screaming front page headlines though.

This is not woes. This is normal. No trains 25th and 26th, same every year. And most people take the week off between Christmas and the new year. So the railways take the opportunity to do any maintenance / upgrade work that involves shutting the line.

Perfectly normal, all diversions and closures announced well in advance. The papers just like good headlines. Especially if the work overruns and people can't get back to work on 2nd January.

Keith, you may be correct and I have confused the Telegraph with the tabloids. I never have figured out the UK newspapers. We do subscribe to The Economist but that is a magazine, not a newspaper. I have edited my post to remove the offending reference.

But I do think it is an exaggeration to use the word "chaos". The closures are planned and announced well ahead of time---which seems the opposite of chaos. But there will be some travel problems, particularly for visitors to London, many of whom are posting their plans and asking for advice in this forum. My post is targeted toward them, not Londoners who already know what to expect.

I have friends who took advantage of a great deal in airfare and are flying to London on the 24th, arriving the morning of the 25th. They were a bit taken aback to learn they cannot use the Heathrow Express to get into London. Yes, maybe they should have looked into things more thoroughly beforehand, but not everyone has the foresight to do that.

Having never been to London (or any of Europe), my wife and I will be in London very early December 23, and then we are there until departing via EuroStar on December 26 for Paris. My question is: will the Tube be effected by any outages over the Chirstmas holiday? Our plan is to bike as much as possible using the bike share, but we will need to at a minimum utilize on the 26th to get to St. Pancras with our suitcases...

Is biking and walking a viable option for these days we are in London?

Kevin,
There is virtually no public transport on the 25th December, everything is closed. I am surprised Eurostar is running on the 26th.
As far as the tube is concerned, the official TFL site says:

If you're travelling in London over Christmas and New Year, your journey may be affected by planned works and service changes
please check back nearer the time for details of 2016's travel changes

See here: https://tfl.gov.uk/status-updates/major-works-and-events/festive
23rd to 26th December is not a time I would have recommended for a vist to London, as so much will be closed.

December 26 is Boxing Day, a holiday. I will leave it to the Londoners to say how this will affect Tube travel. If need be you could take a cab from your hotel to St. Pancras. Where is your hotel?

As for walking and biking, we routinely walk as much as possible, all over London. But that is in May or September, when the weather is pleasant. You will have shorter days and colder weather, so plan to dress accordingly.

As for biking---I know a lot of people do it, but I would only attempt it in a dedicated bike lane! such as one finds in the parks. Not in London traffic.
They are building an east-west " super highway" for bikes. It I do not know how much is finished at this time.

Thanks all. We get in pretty early on the 23rd (6am), and are planning on squeezing in as much as we can that day. It seems like the 23rd is the only day that a bunch of museums/attractions are going to be open. We are staying over by Tower of London, so our plan is to drop our stuff at the hotel, then start exploring. Kensington Palace and the Royal Observatory are on our list for this day, along with dinner reservations at Nopi

The 24th, we're going to do a Parkrun, then we've got the Beefeater tour, and Christmas Eve at Westminster Abby.

For the 25th, with the understanding that most everywhere is going to be closed, our plan was to find some open pubs, and maybe do some biking around London. What is the food situation in London on Christmas? Are restaurants mostly closed as well? We have also read about the Peter Pan Cup that happens every Christmas morning that might be fun to check out.

The 26th, we leave early (9:30) for Paris, where we will spend 4 nights, followed by 3 nights in Amsterdam!

Praying for good weather (anything above 30F and not raining) so that we can do as much walking/biking as possible!