Network Rail to renew six sets of points at Forest Gate in 10-day Christmas closure

Network Rail will renew six sets of points at Forest Gate in east London in a 10-day Christmas programme on the Great Eastern Main Line, with Greater Anglia and Elizabeth line services into London Liverpool Street affected from Sunday 27 December.

The infrastructure owner said on 22 October that engineers would replace the six sets of points, which allow trains to change tracks, along with the associated rails, sleepers and ballast. It described the line at Forest Gate as carrying hundreds of passenger services a day as well as freight on the strategic freight network.

A second blockade will take place at Barking station on the Tilbury line, where rails, sleepers and ballast will be renewed over five days. Network Rail said the Barking work would stop c2c services between Liverpool Street and Grays.

Martin Beable, Chief Operating Officer for GBR Anglia, said: "we'll be taking advantage of a quieter time on the network to carry out significant improvements at Forest Gate and Barking station."

The closures

Network Rail's Anglia release gives the Forest Gate work as running from Sunday 27 December 2026 to 3 January 2027. Its national release of 14 October said no Greater Anglia or Elizabeth line trains would run through the Forest Gate area until the early hours of Monday 4 January.

During the Forest Gate closure a rail replacement service will run between Ingatestone or Shenfield and Newbury Park. Elizabeth line trains will not run between Stratford and Romford, with a reduced service between Romford and Shenfield.

The Barking closure runs from Sunday 27 to Tuesday 29 December, with buses replacing trains between Upminster, Rainham, Purfleet and Grays.

Network Rail said passenger numbers between Christmas Day and New Year's Day are often about half those of a typical weekday, which gives it one of the few chances to take extended possessions on the busiest routes.

Other Anglia work

Most of the smaller jobs will be done on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, when the railway is traditionally closed. Only a limited Stansted Express service will run on Boxing Day, between Stansted Airport and Tottenham Hale.

In East London, Network Rail will repair platform canopies and replace roof sheeting at Forest Gate station, renew two sets of points at Stratford and carry out maintenance on the Weaver line.

In East Anglia it will repair platforms 1 and 4 at Southend Victoria, renew three sets of points at Lowestoft, replace sleepers and renew track at Trowse swing bridge, and carry out signalling renewals for the Cambridge re-signalling project (C3R) together with overhead line and track work between Cambridge and Ely.

Location	Sets of points renewed
Forest Gate	6
Lowestoft	3
Stratford	2

Beable said the smaller projects "will help us maintain a safe, reliable and efficient railway for the hundreds of passenger and freight services that use these routes every day."

National programme

The Anglia work sits within what Network Rail's national release describes as a £152m Christmas 2026 programme to improve journeys, reliability and capacity. That release lists Forest Gate as a major track replacement project with the route closed for 10 days.

Anit Chandarana, Network Rail's Group Director, System Operator, apologised in the national release for the disruption some passengers would face.

The work follows Network Rail's announcement on 14 May 2026 of a unified leadership team bringing together c2c, Greater Anglia and Network Rail Anglia, part of wider plans to create Great British Railways (GBR). Beable, previously Managing Director of Greater Anglia, became Chief Operating Officer of the integrated railway under Managing Director Jamie Burles, who said at the time that bringing track and train under one team would mean more effective planning of engineering work.

Last Christmas

Over Christmas 2025 Network Rail closed Liverpool Street for eight days for roof renewal, replacing 224 roof panels above the concourse and 53 access hatches. Office of Rail and Road figures for April 2024 to March 2025 put Liverpool Street as Great Britain's busiest station for the third year running, with almost 100 million entries and exits.

The same Christmas, the Cambridge area was closed for up to 11 days for the second stage of C3R, during which the old signalling panel was switched off after more than 40 years. Ten sets of points were also replaced on the Mildmay line between Camden Road and Richmond and Shepherd's Bush over 11 days.

C3R's first stage was commissioned in a 12-day closure at Christmas 2024. Network Rail's project page now puts the investment at over £200m, having described it as almost £200m in October 2025, and says the scheme will replace almost 700 signalling assets on completion. Dates for Stages 3 and 4 have yet to be confirmed.