King’s Cross station will be shut on Christmas Eve while engineering works are carried out.

Work to transform the East Coast Main Line with digital signalling will close the busy station tomorrow (December 24).

This means there will be no long-distance services to or from King’s Cross while engineers work between Welwyn Garden City and Hitchin.

LNER, Hull Trains, Lumo, Thameslink and Great Northern services will be affected, and no Grand Central services will operate.

Lawrence Bowman, network strategy director for Network Rail, said: “We plan our Christmas engineering programmes months- and in some cases years- in advance and target the quietest times – overnight, weekends and Christmas Day and Boxing Day to ensure we keep what disruption there is to an absolute minimum and will always looks to use diversions rather than put people on buses.

“But some routes will see disruption as we upgrade the railway, so it’s important that passengers check their journeys before travelling.”

Paddington station will also be shut between Christmas Eve and Wednesday (December 27) while planned engineering works are carried out.

Meanwhile, the Met Office has warned Christmas Eve travel plans could be affected with heavy winds set to batter parts of the country.

Gusts as high as 70mph are due to hit the north of Scotland and northern and central areas of England.

Two separate yellow weather warnings for wind have been issued, saying people should expect travel disruption, damage to buildings and power cuts, while the rest of the country may see showers.

Motorists have been advised by the RAC to travel before 11am or after 6pm if possible to reduce the chance of being stuck in long queues.

The AA estimated that 16.4 million car journeys will take place by the end of today (December 23).

Eurostar, which operates passenger rail services to and from London St Pancras, is running two extra trains per day between London and Paris, including on Christmas Eve, to help people whose trains were cancelled last week.

Vehicle-carrying train service Eurotunnel is running its usual timetable but is only accepting customers who have pre-booked.