COMMUTERS and people making their way home for Christmas are facing timetable changes on the trains over the festive period.

The changes are to accommodate the bank holidays and engineering works.

Ten days of Network Rail engineering works to upgrade overhead lines starts on Sunday, December 23 on the Norwich to London lines.

Network Rail will also be carrying out upgrades to track, points and signalling between Liverpool Street and Bow junction to prevent failures in this key area and reduce delays.

A rail replacement bus service will run between Ingatestone and Newbury Park.

Greater Anglia customers can use their tickets on the Central Line to Stratford and London Liverpool Street, from Sunday, December 23 to Tuesday, January 1.

This excludes Christmas Day and Boxing Day when there will be no service at all.

Last trains on Christmas Eve are earlier than the usual Monday timetable.

The last train from London Liverpool Street is 19.33 to Norwich, 20.08 to Ipswich, 20.38 to Colchester - all using the rail replacement service via the Central line and bus from Newbury Park to Ingatestone.

On New Year’s Eve, last trains are also earlier than the usual Monday timetable.

The last train from London Liverpool Street is 22.33 to Norwich, 23.38 to Ipswich, 00.48 to Colchester using rail replacement.

Bank holiday timetables will be in place on New Year’s Day.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “If you are travelling with us, please do check before you travel as some journeys make take longer than normal or arrive or depart at different times than usual.

“If there is engineering works on your journey, we will make sure you still get to your destination, even if part of your travel is by bus.”

Meliha Duymaz, Network Rail’s route managing director for Anglia, said: “We are making a huge investment into Anglia’s rail network to carry out major improvements to rail travel in the region as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan.

“This means there will be changes to train services over the Christmas period. I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we carry out this work and advise them to check before they travel."