No trains from any Dulwich station on Christmas Day, almost none on Boxing Day, and a bank holiday on Monday 28 December. What is known so far, and when.

No trains will run from any Dulwich station on Christmas Day, Friday 25 December 2026. That is the national rule, not a local closure. Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December, has “a very limited train service” run by a small number of operators, and most operators run nothing. Monday 28 December is the Boxing Day bank holiday this year, and what runs that day has not been announced.

The quick answer

  • Christmas Day: no National Rail trains at all. North Dulwich, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, Herne Hill and Peckham Rye included.
  • Christmas Eve (Thursday 24 December): trains finish earlier than normal. Last-train times are published after October.
  • No Christmas engineering work is booked yet on the Southern, Southeastern or Thameslink lines through Dulwich. National Rail lists work 12 weeks ahead, so it appears from about the start of October.

Day by day, from National Rail

National Rail’s Christmas and New Year 2026/27 summary covers Thursday 24 December 2026 to Monday 4 January 2027.

Day What National Rail says
Thu 24 Dec Trains on many routes finish earlier than normal
Fri 25 Dec No National Rail services
Sat 26 Dec Most operators run no service; “a very limited train service” from a few, details to follow
Mon 28 Dec Substitute Boxing Day bank holiday; services “to be confirmed”
Thu 31 Dec Trains on some routes finish earlier than normal
Fri 1 Jan Special trains after midnight on some London routes; guide due in early December

It says details from each train company “will start being added to the pages from the beginning of October onwards”, and that a considerable number of engineering projects will run over the holiday, with full details still to come.

Which operator serves your station

Each Dulwich line is run by a different company, so check the right one. The split, from our Dulwich trains page:

  • Southern to London Bridge: East Dulwich, North Dulwich, Peckham Rye.
  • Southeastern to Victoria: West Dulwich and Sydenham Hill, plus Herne Hill, Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye.
  • Thameslink through Blackfriars: Herne Hill, Nunhead and Peckham Rye.
  • Windrush line (London Overground): Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye.

Christmas Eve last trains

National Rail publishes a table of last direct trains from London on Christmas Eve. The 2026 table is promised “after October 2026”. The 2025 table only covers major towns such as Brighton and Sevenoaks, not suburban stops, so for North Dulwich or West Dulwich use the journey planner for the evening of 24 December once the timetable loads.

New Year’s Eve: last year’s pattern

From National Rail’s New Year’s Eve page, which still shows last year’s arrangements for 31 December 2025:

  • Southern: “No additional overnight trains have been announced.”
  • Thameslink: no extra overnight trains. London Blackfriars became exit only from 20:30, with no trains calling after 23:30, and Thameslink started calling there again from 02:00.
  • Southeastern: extra late-night trains ran from Charing Cross, Cannon Street and London Bridge after midnight.
  • TfL ran services through the night.

So last year, getting back to Dulwich after the fireworks meant the night bus or a Southeastern train from London Bridge, not Southern. National Rail says its 2026 guide will be published in early December.

Engineering work already booked before Christmas

These are the notices already on National Rail for the weeks before the holiday:

  • Sunday 29 November: no Southeastern trains to or from Victoria. Trains between Victoria and Orpington, which call at West Dulwich and Herne Hill, run to and from London Blackfriars instead. Brixton station is shut all day. Tickets are accepted on the Tube between Victoria, Brixton and Blackfriars.
  • Monday 14 to Thursday 17 December, late evenings: amended late Thameslink trains between Blackfriars, Herne Hill and Sutton. The 22:35 St Albans City to Sutton terminates at Herne Hill and the 22:54 Luton to Sutton terminates at Blackfriars. Tickets are accepted on Southern.

Nothing is yet listed for 24 December to 4 January on the Dulwich lines. We check the notices again in October and November, and will list any closure here.

Driving and parking over Christmas

Southwark changes its parking enforcement over the holiday, and its parking during holidays page sets the rules:

  • Christmas Day: no parking enforcement and no bus lane enforcement anywhere in Southwark. Cameras enforcing banned turns still run.
  • Other bank holidays: paid bays and permit bays are free across most of the borough, but double yellow lines, footways, dropped kerbs, disabled bays and park car parks are still enforced.

Last year the council published a day-by-day table for 23 December to 2 January. It treated Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve as normal until 5pm, and it ran bank holiday rules on Monday 29 December 2025 as well as the bank holidays. The 2026 table has not been published yet; last year’s appeared in mid-December. Our parking in Dulwich page covers the controlled zones, and current roadworks are on Dulwich roadworks and travel.

Other Christmas pages

Still to be confirmed

  • Southern, Southeastern and Thameslink Christmas timetables. From early October.
  • Christmas Eve last trains. After October.
  • New Year’s Eve extra trains. Early December.
  • Southwark’s 2026 Christmas parking table. Mid-December.