Important travel, service and engineering work information for the festive period
During the festive period, train times will be amended, with no trains on certain days.
Whether you’re heading to or from work, doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, or meeting up with friends or family, you may be affected by amended timetables across the festive period. Below you will find information on how our services will be running over Christmas and New Year.
This page also provides an overview of the most significant planned engineering work that may affect your journeys during this time.
If you’re going to be travelling over the festive period, plan ahead and check your journeys on our app or at nationalrail.co.uk.
Major planned engineering work over the Christmas period
Below are details of the most significant engineering work affecting Southern services over the festive period:
Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 December: closure in Barnham area
Buses will replace trains between Barnham and Bognor Regis on Saturday.
On Sunday, buses will replace trains between Littlehampton and Barnham / Bognor Regis / Chichester.
As a result, trains to or from Bognor Regis or Portsmouth Harbour will run between London Victoria and Littlehampton. Shuttle trains will run between Chichester and Portsmouth Harbour.
Trains will also run between Brighton and Littlehampton.
No Southern trains will run to / from Southampton Central. To help you complete your journeys, tickets will be accepted on South Western Railway services between Portsmouth Harbour / Fratton and Southampton Central.
Journeys will take longer if using replacement buses, so please allow extra time.
Saturday 27 December – Sunday 4 January: South Bermondsey station closure
South Bermondsey station will be closed and no trains will call at the station from Saturday 27 December through to Sunday 4 January 2026.
To help you make your local journeys in the area, from Saturday 27 to Wednesday 31 December paper tickets will be accepted on London Bus routes 1, 21, 47, 381 and P12 which serve the South Bermondsey area.
Use the Transport for London journey planner to plan alternative routes.
From Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 January 2026, the line through South Bermondsey is closed and a replacement bus service will run. See the section below for more information on this.
The closure of the station is to allow the station platforms to be rebuilt. Read more about the work here.
Thursday 1 – Sunday 4 January 2026: London Bridge to Tulse Hill closure
From Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 January, buses will replace trains between London Bridge and Tulse Hill via South Bermondsey and Peckham Rye, calling at all stations.
A revised train service will run between Tulse Hill and East Croydon from Thursday to Saturday. On Sunday these trains will run to/from West Croydon.
Beckenham Junction services will run between Tulse Hill and Beckenham Junction on Friday and Saturday only.
You can use your paper ticket at no extra cost on the following services:
London Underground between:
- London Bridge and Canada Water (Jubilee line)
London Overground between:
- Canada Water and Peckham Rye (Windrush line)
Journey times will be increased when using replacement buses.
You can plan your journey at nationalrail.co.uk and use the Transport for London Journey Planner to plan alternative routes.
This closure is to allow work to continue on the rebuilding of the platforms at South Bermondsey station. Find out more about this project at Network Rail’s website.
Sunday 4 January 2026:
All day on Sunday, no trains will run between South Croydon and Oxted / East Grinstead / Uckfield.
Replacement buses will run between:
- Purley and East Grinstead calling at Upper Warlingham and Oxted
- Oxted and Crowborough / Uckfield
- Upper Warlingham and Woldingham
- Oxted and East Grinstead
Trains between London Victoria and Reigate will be amended to run between Reigate and Redhill only. To complete your journeys in this area, please use alternative Southern or Thameslink trains to travel between Redhill and London.
Major works at London Waterloo – Saturday 27 December to Sunday 4 January 2026
Major engineering work is taking place affecting South Western Railway (SWR) services to and from London Waterloo over the Christmas and New Year period.
On Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 December, there will be no SWR trains between Clapham Junction and London Waterloo. On other dates during this period there will be a reduced service to and from London Waterloo.
As a result, Clapham Junction station is likely to be much busier than usual.
Southern services in the London Victoria to Clapham Junction area, as well as on routes to and from Epsom and the Portsmouth or Southampton areas are also likely to be busier.
Please visit the SWR website for more information. You can also find out more about the works on the Network Rail website.
