What trains are running this holiday season? Cancellations and disruptions in the West Country

Services between Bristol, Swindon, Exeter and elsewhere to London will be affected by maintenance works. Credit: Great Western Railway

With the holiday season underway, millions of people across the UK will be travelling across the region for one of the busiest periods of the year.

With planned works for HS2 in London, travellers looking to travel between the capital and the South West might find their journey changed. Track, signal and station work at Westbury will also affect travel in Wiltshire and Somerset.

Great Western Railway

25th - 26th December:

  • No Great Western services.

27th - 29th December:

  • No services to London Paddington from Bristol Temple Meads, Swindon, Exeter, Paignton, Plymouth - services will stop at Reading instead.

  • Some GWR trains running between London Euston and Plymouth/Penzance via Taunton.

  • Some GWR trains running between London and Swansea/Camarthen via Bristol Parkway.

27th December - 23rd January:

  • Trains between London, Reading and the South West will stop at Frome instead of Westbury due to rail improvement work.

  • Trains still operating between Cardiff and Trowbridge, Salisbury and Portsmouth Harbour, Frome and Weymouth.

  • Limited service between Trowbridge and Swindon via Melksham on Monday to Friday only.

  • Most trains between Westbury and Swindon not running - other trains still running between Chippenham and Swindon.

31st December:

  • Gradual closedown of all trains from approximately 20:00.

3rd January:

  • Night Riviera services between Penzance and London will start running for the first time since before Christmas.

Cross Country

25th - 26th December:

  • No service between Bristol Temple Meads and Manchester Piccadilly.

27th - 29th December:

  • Extremely busy services between Cheltenham/Bristol and Birmingham New Street

South Western Railway

24th December - 2nd January:

  • Engineering works mean trains from London to Weymouth, Exeter or Salisbury will start from Basingstoke.

GWR spokesperson Dan Panes said of the disruption: "Network Rail is carrying out a big piece of work for HS2 between Reading and Paddington which means we can't move the trains in the way we would normally like.

"So we are moving some of our trains into Euston which is a little bit further into London and some trains are stopping at Reading, so people can get into London from there."