Rail passengers in the Watford area face huge levels of disruption over the Christmas period due to more strike action.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Network Rail and rail operators across the country took strike action today (December 14) and yesterday.

They will also be taking further action on December 16 and 17 and between December 24 and December 27.

Services by London Northwestern Railway, Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, Thameslink, Southern, London Overground, and London Underground are among those that will be impacted.

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Below are details of how services that operate via Watford Junction and surrounding stations will be affected.

London Northwestern Railway

Services will start later than usual tomorrow (December 15) due to knock-on effects of strike action.

Between December 19 and January 2, a normal level of service is currently expected on the majority of routes warned journey planners will be updated. The Abbey Line will also be replaced by buses.

Over the weekend (December 16, 17, and 18) services will only be in operation on four routes and only between 7am and 7pm.

The routes are:

  • Lichfield Trent Valley – Birmingham New Street – Redditch / Bromsgrove
  • Birmingham New Street – Wolverhampton – Crewe
  • Birmingham New Street – Wolverhampton (via local stations)
  • Birmingham New Street – Northampton – London Euston

Journey planners for services from December 24 to 27 are expected to be updated from December 20 to 23.

Avanti West Coast

The company has advised that its timetable will be reduced significantly and services that do run “will be extremely busy” on December 16 and 17.

It has suspended sales of tickets for strike days until a timetable is confirmed.

It says it is “looking at” how the December 24 to December 27 strikes will impact services and will provide more information soon.

Southern and Thameslink

Passengers are advised to travel only if “absolutely necessary” on December 16 and 17.

On December 24, services will finish much earlier than usual with last trains departing at around midday on many routes.

There will be no trains on December 25 or 26.

On December 27 services will begin much later than usual, with some routes not having any trains until midday.

Chiltern Railways

Chiltern Railways is advising customers to “only travel if absolutely essential throughout the whole period of industrial action" (December 13 to January 9).

There will be no services operating north of Banbury, and no trains on any route on December 18, 24, or 25.

Services will start later and finish earlier throughout the whole period.

TfL

Most TfL services will continue to run, but “disruption” is expected on strike days and some lines are running a reduced service.

Between Euston and Watford Junction, no services will run on December 17.

On other strike days two trains per hour will run between Euston and Watford Junction with all London Overground services only running between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

TfL has advised checking its site for more information to come ahead of the December 24 to 27 strikes.

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