No trains from either Lichfield station on Christmas Day, and Boxing Day's bank holiday moves to 28 December. Last year's closures, and when 2026's are due.
There will be no trains at all on Christmas Day, from either Lichfield station. That much is fixed. Most of the rest of the Christmas timetable for 2026 has not been published yet, and National Rail says operators will start adding their details from October.
One thing is different this year and worth planning round now. Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, so the bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December. National Rail says most operators will run no trains on Saturday 26 December and that the service on Monday 28 December is still to be confirmed (National Rail, Christmas and New Year 2026/27).
The quick answer
- Christmas Day, Friday 25 December: no trains anywhere on the network.
- Saturday 26 December: most operators run nothing; the Boxing Day bank holiday is Monday 28 December.
- Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve: trains finish early. Last year the Cross-City line to Birmingham went over to buses from 10pm on New Year’s Eve until 10am on New Year’s Day.
Two stations, two different Christmases
Lichfield has two stations on two separate lines, and at Christmas they are affected by different things:
- Lichfield City and the Cross-City platforms at Lichfield Trent Valley are served by West Midlands Railway to Birmingham New Street. This is the service most people here use.
- The main line platforms at Lichfield Trent Valley are on the West Coast Main Line, with London Northwestern Railway and Avanti West Coast towards Rugby and London Euston.
More on both, including fares and parking: Lichfield train times to London.
What is confirmed for 2026
National Rail’s festive summary covers Thursday 24 December 2026 to Monday 4 January 2027. On 25 September it said:
| Date | What National Rail says |
|---|---|
| Thu 24 December, Christmas Eve | Trains on many routes finish earlier than normal |
| Fri 25 December, Christmas Day | No National Rail services |
| Sat 26 December | Most operators run no service; a very limited service from a few, to be confirmed |
| Mon 28 December, bank holiday | Services to be confirmed |
| Thu 31 December, New Year’s Eve | Trains on some routes finish earlier than normal |
| Fri 1 January 2027 | Special late services on some London routes only |
West Midlands Railway’s own page for the period lists no service on Christmas Day and says details for every other day from 24 December to 4 January “will be published when available” (National Rail, West Midlands Railway Christmas advice). London Northwestern Railway’s and Avanti West Coast’s pages read the same way: no trains on Christmas Day, everything else still to be published.
No engineering works are yet listed for Lichfield’s lines over Christmas. National Rail’s register of planned works, checked on 25 September, runs only to 19 December 2026, and nothing in it touches either line between Christmas and New Year.
What happened last Christmas
Last year’s pattern is the best guide to what is coming, and it shows the two lines behaving very differently.
Cross-City line to Birmingham (West Midlands Railway), 2025/26:
- No trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.
- An amended timetable between Christmas and New Year.
- On New Year’s Eve, trains between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley stopped from 10pm and were replaced by buses.
- On New Year’s Day the line did not reopen until 10am, with buses before then.
Source: West Midlands Railway, festive travel guide, which on 25 September 2026 still carried the 2025 dates.
West Coast Main Line towards London, 2025/26: Network Rail closed the line between Milton Keynes and Rugby from 24 December to 5 January, with replacement buses, as part of a 22-day programme of work up and down the route (Network Rail, 1 December 2025). Rugby is on the way from Lichfield Trent Valley to Euston, so a London journey last Christmas involved a replacement bus for part of the way. That announcement came on 1 December, so expect this year’s West Coast plans around the same time.
Buses
Lichfield and Burntwood’s buses are run by several operators, among them National Express West Midlands (the 8 from Walsall through Burntwood to Lichfield), Chaserider (the 60, 61 and 62 through Burntwood, and the 36 to Shenstone and Walsall) and Diamond Bus East Midlands (the 12 to Alrewas, Yoxall and Burton), according to Staffordshire County Council’s route list (Staffordshire County Council, Lichfield and Burntwood buses). None has published its Christmas 2026 timetable yet. Operators normally post festive changes in December, and we will add them here.
Parking in the city over Christmas
Two things from last winter, from Lichfield District Council (24 November 2025):
- Free evening parking is now permanent. Every council car park in the city centre is free from 6.30pm to 7.30am, every day. That started on 25 November 2025 and was not a Christmas-only offer, so it applies this December.
- The Friary multi-storey was free at weekends on the four weekends before Christmas last year, from 29 November to 21 December. That was a one-season offer. The council has not yet said whether it will be repeated in 2026.
Daytime tariffs, Sunday charges and the Beacon Park car parks are on our parking in Lichfield page.
Still to be confirmed, and when
- Christmas Eve last trains: National Rail says its last-trains guide is published in late November or early December.
- Every operator’s day-by-day service: from October onwards.
- West Coast Main Line Christmas closures: last year announced on 1 December.
- Bus timetables and any Friary weekend parking offer: expected in November or December.
We will update this page as each one lands. For road closures and works, see Lichfield roadworks. If you are planning round the school holidays, the Christmas break is 21 December to 1 January: Lichfield school term dates.
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