While much of Britain is tucking into its Christmas dinner, Network Rail’s orange army will be out in force on the West Coast main line at Weedon – near Northampton – to improve the reliability of the railway through the area.

Passengers will benefit from the £1m investment – which will replace more than 2km of drainage under the track – as it will significantly reduce the need for future speed restrictions on the line, helping to provide a more reliable service on one of the busiest sections of railway in Europe.

This Christmas engineers will start work at 8pm on Christmas Eve when nine huge engineering trains will be used to remove track, sleepers and ballast, lay the new drainage and replace the track ready for trains to start running on the improved track from 5.30am on Monday 29 December.

Paul Eamonson, Network Rail project manager, said: “This is a really important piece of work as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan which will increase the life expectancy of the track and provide a more reliable railway for passengers. A huge amount of planning has gone into our Christmas work to make sure we minimise disruption to passengers while providing a more modern and reliable railway.

“I would like to say a big thank you to all the engineers who will be working hard over the Christmas period to continue the upgrade of the railway for our passengers.”

On Sunday 28 and 29 December services will still run but they will be diverted via Northampton.