With the hot summer weather the last thing anyone is thinking about is Christmas. Apart that is for those at Network Rail and GWR.
With fewer people travelling between Christmas and New Year engineers will be working on a key junction near Slough and that will affect services from the West heading into London Paddington.
When services resume after the festive shutdown on the 27th December until the early hours of Friday 4th January 2027 most GWR long distance trains will start and finish at Reading, while local services will continue to Maidenhead or Slough.
In addition there will be two trains an hour from Bristol Temple Meads and South Wales which will divert after Swindon and run non stop to London Euston.
During the closure engineers will work to replace equipment at Dolphin Junction near Slough where trains cross between the main (fast) lines and the slower relief lines. There will also be more work carried out near Old Oak Common in West London in connection with HS2.
Preparatory work is also scheduled on the last weekend of November and final adjustments will be made over the weekend of the 9th/10th January 2027.
Full details will be in journey planners nearer the time.