Network Rail to renew 11 switches and crossings at Doncaster Marshgate over Christmas

Network Rail will renew 11 switches and crossings units at Marshgate Junction and more than 640 metres of track through Doncaster station over Christmas 2026, closing the East Coast Main Line station to all services on Christmas Eve.

The infrastructure owner announced the work on 13 October. It said the project would start in the early hours of 24 December, continue over Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and that trains are planned to resume through Doncaster on Sunday 27 December.

Network Rail describes Marshgate Junction as one of the busiest and most important pieces of railway infrastructure in the Doncaster area. The track renewal through the station will replace assets that have reached the end of their working life, it said.

John Grainger, joint head of performance, LNER & Network Rail East Coast, said: "This important investment at Doncaster will help deliver a more reliable railway for passengers and freight on one of the UK's busiest rail routes."

Two-stage renewal

The Christmas 2026 possession is the first half of the overall project. Network Rail said the remainder of Marshgate Junction's switches and crossings would be upgraded over the same dates in December 2027.

Switches and crossings are moveable sections of track that guide trains from one track to another and allow them to cross paths, according to Network Rail's track pages. The company says they have an especially limited lifespan because trains cause wear and deformation as they travel across them.

The junction has been worked on at Christmas before. A Network Rail media resource dated 11 January 2016 records new points being installed at Doncaster Marshgate over Christmas 2015.

Service changes on 24 December

Network Rail set out the following changes for Christmas Eve:

• LNER will run between London King's Cross and Retford/Lincoln and between York and Scotland, with rail replacement coaches between Newark North Gate/Doncaster and York and between Retford and Leeds, calling at Doncaster and Wakefield Westgate.
• CrossCountry will have no service between Reading and Newcastle via Doncaster, and no trains will call at Wakefield Westgate.
• There will be no Grand Central, Hull Trains or East Coast Lumo services.
• TransPennine Express services between Liverpool Lime Street and Cleethorpes will be split, with a replacement bus between Sheffield and Scunthorpe.

National Rail Enquiries' LNER page says the engineering work will close the lines between Retford and York on Christmas Eve. It adds that the 12:00 King's Cross to Inverness service will run only between York and Perth, with a non-stop coach from Perth to Inverness.

Grainger said: "We've planned the work to take place when fewer trains are running to minimise the impact as much as possible".

The national programme

Separately, Network Rail said its Christmas 2026 engineering programme nationally is worth £152m and includes work at London Paddington, Birmingham New Street and Huddersfield. The company said it plans its most disruptive work for the period between Christmas Day and New Year, when passenger numbers can be at their lowest.

Network Rail did not give a cost for the Doncaster work in its announcement.

The Doncaster announcement also flagged a separate overhead line upgrade at Birmingham New Street, which will mean no services to or from the station from 24 to 28 December. Network Rail announced that scheme on 22 September as a £13m renewal of overhead power lines, much of which date from the 1960s. Like Marshgate, it is phased across successive Christmases, as the first stage of a three-year programme with further work at Christmas 2027 and 2028.

Route context

Network Rail says the East Coast Main Line carries over 20 million passengers a year and is in the early stages of a £1.2bn upgrade under the Railway Upgrade Plan. The route connects London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle.

Network Rail owns and operates 20,000 miles of track and 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts. The second stage of the Marshgate Junction renewal is scheduled for December 2027.