News
Image of London from above featuring the London Eye and River Thames.

All the strikes, planned works and closures happening in London this Christmas and how they will affect you 

Here is a round up of all the strike action, planned work and closures that will affect Londoners over the Christmas period.

Use this guide to plan your travel, stay on top of any closures and understand what impact the changes might have on you. 

Transport

There are currently no planned rail strikes in London this holiday season. However, there are planned bus strikes across seven routes in West London on First Bus services.

The strikes will take place from 22 -24 December from 5am until the end of service. 

The routes which will have little or no service operate from Westbourne Park. They are: 3 (24hr route), 23 (24hr route), 31, 218, 295 (24hr route), 452 and N31.  

There are also a number of planned rail works over Christmas. These works mean that there will be no trains to or from London Waterloo and Vauxhall stations on Saturday 27 December and Sunday 28 December.

Additionally, no trains will run to or from Liverpool Street station from Saturday 27 December to Thursday 1 January, except the Elizabeth Line. 

Trains to Waterloo will mostly terminate at Clapham Junction instead and Liverpool Street trains will be diverted to London Stratford station. You can check your journey here. 

Transport for London is not running most public transport on Christmas Day, although some coaches are available and rental bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters will operate in most boroughs as usual. 

It may be easier for some to drive over the Christmas period as the Congestion Charge will not operate from Christmas Day until 1 January.

The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and the Blackwell and Silverton Tunnel charges also will not apply on Christmas Day.

The final planned closures affect rail services. There will be no trains overnight on the Tube or overground on Boxing day, Friday 26 December. 

Hospitals, GP surgeries and pharmacies 

Resident doctors (previously known as junior doctors) across England will be undertaking five days of strikes at the start of the Christmas period.

The British Medical Association announced a walk out from 7am Wednesday 17 December to 7am Monday 22 December.

Resident doctors work in a number of specialist areas in hospitals and can also take on the role of a GP registrar, a doctor in the final stages of GP training, in a GP surgery.

They have completed medical qualifications and have up to eight years experience working the profession. 

King’s College Hospital NHS Trust is advising patients to assume their appointments are running unless they are told otherwise but have warned A&E services are likely to face long delays.

The Trust is encouraging patients to consider using other services like NHS 111, local pharmacies and GPs. 

North London NHS Trust said that some routine clinical work will be cancelled and some appointments will be delayed and rescheduled due to the strikes.

Similarly, however, they encourage those with scheduled appointments to attend unless they have been advised otherwise.

Most GP surgeries will also be closed on bank holidays over the Christmas period. This year Christmas Day falls on a Thursday, so surgeries will be closed on 25 and 26 December as well as Thursday 1 January.

Surgeries encourage patients to ensure they have secured their prescriptions in advance. 

However, some local pharmacies and a few GP practices will be open on the Christmas bank holidays, typically with reduced hours. You can find a list of pharmacy opening times here.

Police

Metropolitan Police call centre staff will be striking on New Year’s Eve, 31 December, one of the busiest days of the year for emergency services.

Members of the Unite Union, totalling 175 staff, are scheduled to walk out from 6am on 31 December for 25 hours. 

Call centre staff are responsible for picking up some emergency calls, as well as servicing and dispatching emergency vehicles like police cars, record crime reports and working as technicians. 

Unite has previously said it believes strikes will increase crime levels as there will be fewer call handlers to pick up when the public phone the police to report incidents.

Featured image credit: TheOtherKev via Pixabay

Join the discussion

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles