Christmas Eve rail services to end at lunchtime, passengers warned

Passengers are being warned not to travel by rail after lunchtime on Christmas Eve to avoid being stranded on Dec 25.

Rail executives say that last trains will leave much earlier than 6pm, as has been the case during previous rail strikes, with final trains in the very early afternoon at some stations.

Official guidance at present is that "services finish very early".

A source said: “The message is to check before you travel.

“But trains will finish much earlier, so don’t plan to be leaving much after lunch.”

Christmas Eve is one of 11 days of strike action planned by unions. A timetable will not be finalised and released until Dec 16.

Afternoon trains could be available on Christmas Eve, but passengers are to be warned not to plan for them running.

After a hiatus of several weeks, the biggest campaign of 2022's industrial action on the railways will begin on Tuesday.

Strikes will take place on Dec 13, 14, 15 and 16 as well as Dec 24, 26, and 27. Walkouts will also take place on Jan 3, 4, 6 and 7.

Hopes of avoiding mass disruption in the coming weeks have now faded after talks collapsed last weekend.

Talks between Network Rail and train operators on one side and union leaders on the other have now been halted.

Meanwhile, train operators “won’t talk”, according to union leaders, after a condition was inserted in a pay deal by ministers on Sunday that would have scrapped train guards across the entire network.

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) said strikes would continue “indefinitely” if demands continue to sign up to driver-only operation (DOO).

Mr Lynch said the union “would go down on this issue”.

Rail chiefs are set to launch an information blitz on Friday so that the travelling public are not caught out and stranded for Christmas Day.

A traffic light calendar has been released and timetables for next week’s strikes will be published imminently. A “strike map” will be released on Saturday.