Trains will run 365 days of the year for the first time in half a century under new Network Rail plans, The Times has learnt.

Engineering works, the main cause of rail delays and shutdowns, will be completed at night in a fraction of the time it currently takes, according to Iain Coucher, Network Rail’s chief executive.

Passengers should no longer be forced to catch replacement buses at weekends and should have services over Christmas, when the network shuts normally for 60 hours.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Coucher said that Network Rail had let passengers down last Christmas by failing to complete engineering works on time at Rugby and Liverpool Street, East London. He said that the company would find new ways of working to carry out all engineering works at night, and keep to deadlines.

Bridges and points will be preassembled in a factory rather than on site and will be lifted into place from rail wagons. Schemes that take a whole weekend currently and require tracks to be closed will be completed in eight hours overnight, allowing services to continue until 10pm and resume at 6am.

“We now need to run railways every single day of the week. We need to run them on Christmas Days and Boxing Days,” he said.

“We traditionally have taken weekends and Bank Holidays to do engineering work. But we know that there is demand to use the railways 365 days a year.”

Mr Coucher condemned the attitude of some train companies, which have claimed there would be too few passengers to make it worth running a service over Christmas. “If we gave the ability for people to run trains on Christmas Day, I’m sure there would be travellers. There are still key workers working and there are many people who are not from a Christian background and want to travel,” he said. “We know that Boxing Day is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.”

Britain is the only main European country that does not run trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, despite growth in demand. Until the early 1960s British Rail operated services from many stations. These were cut back with the rise of car ownership.

Network Rail’s signallers already work over Christmas because of engineering trains but train companies would have to persuade drivers to come to work, and unions say that they would want substantial overtime.

Network Rail confirmed yesterday, as The Times reported two weeks ago, that it would take greater responsibility for track upgrades and rely less on contractors. It is to recruit 200 overheadline engineers and has offered jobs to 50 engineers from Kent-based TI, which has gone into administration.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We recognise the increasing demands of society for more consistent rail services through the week, and this is principally for Network Rail and train operators to agree on.”

Rail commuters, meanwhile, are to hold a fare strike by refusing to show a valid ticket for their journey. Upset with service levels on First Great Western routes, passengers travelling from Bath, Oxford, Frome, Yatton and Yate will take part in the protest on January 28. The More Trains Less Strain group is urging travellers to present a specially prepared “Fare Strike” ticket to officials.

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