Festive tickets available now
Trip to the Christmas markets, panto with the kids or heading home to see your loved ones? Tickets for all travel dates over Christmas and New Year are now on sale, so you can start making plans for the festive period. Buy tickets now.
We’re lifting Peak restrictions
To keep you moving this Christmas and to help you save those pennies, we’re lifting our Peak restrictions. That means all Avanti West Coast services from Friday 20 December to Sunday 5 January inclusive are Off-Peak. Buy an Off-Peak ticket for these dates and get all the flexibility you need – travel at any time.
Fancy a First Class festive treat? From 21 December to 5 January, you can enjoy our delicious weekend menu in First Class. Check it out here.
Strike action
The RMT union has announced strike action affecting Avanti West Coast on 31 December and 2 January, along with all Sundays from 12 January to 25 May 2025. On these dates, our timetables and operating hours will be significantly reduced and trains that do run are expected to be busy.
This New Year, we strongly recommend you travel either side of the strike dates. If you booked tickets to travel with Avanti West Coast on 31 December or 2 January before the industrial action was announced on 17 December, you can now use them to travel any time from Monday 30 December to Saturday 4 January inclusive. Alternatively, if you no longer wish to travel due to the strike action, you can claim a full refund of your prebooked tickets from where you bought them. Find out more here.
Find out more
Engineering work
Network Rail are carrying out major upgrade work over the festive period. Check out the summary below to help plan your journey or click your travel date for more info. Use our online journey planner to find the quickest way from A to B, even during engineering work.
Travelling to or from London Euston?
London Euston station is expected to be extremely busy this festive period, with reduced timetables due to engineering work as well as extra passengers from diverted Great Western Railway services. If you can, we recommend travelling to or from London Euston before Christmas Eve (24 December) or after 2 January 2025.
What upgrade work is happening?
Network Rail will be carrying out vital maintenance and improvement work to the West Coast Main Line this Christmas. This includes major resignalling work in the Crewe area, along with track renewals and improvements to help deliver more reliable journeys on the busy routes north and south of Milton Keynes.
Find out more.
Want to find out more?
Check out how engineering work will affect other routes and train operators up and down the network on the National Rail Christmas and New Year travel page.
Last trains on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve
Due to engineering work the following day, trains finish much earlier than usual on Tuesday 24 December (Christmas Eve) and Tuesday 31 December (New Year’s Eve). Most of the last trains of the day will leave their origin stations before 8pm, with our longest distance routes setting off before 5pm, so be sure to check before you travel and arrive in plenty of time for your train.
On Tuesday 31 December (New Year's Eve), a combination of engineering work and strike action means the timetable is significantly reduced and trains will finish even earlier than initially planned. We'll share these last trains as soon as the strike timetable is finalised.
The last direct trains to and from our key destinations on Christmas Eve are listed below. If your destination isn’t listed, just pop your journey details into our journey planner and then try clicking ‘See later trains’ until you find the last one.
Which ticket type should I choose?
If it’s best value you’re after, Advance fares are for you. You can save up to 70% by booking as soon as tickets are released! Check the calendar above to see which festive dates have tickets available and which are coming soon. You can set a Ticket Alert if your preferred travel date isn’t available yet and we’ll let you know when our great range of tickets go on sale.
If it’s flexibility you’d prefer, take advantage of our festive Off-Peak travel window and try an Off-Peak Return. As long as tickets are on sale for your outward travel date, you can keep your options open and return within one month. Just click ‘Anytime’ tab when you’re choosing your return options on our website, or tap ‘Open return’ on our app. When you’re ready to head back, be sure to check before you travel to see all the confirmed departure times on your route and for live updates about any disruption.
