Get set for yet another Christmas of railway chaos: Stations and lines to shut for upgrades at 200 sites  

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Train travellers face a Christmas of chaos and cancellations for the third year in a row.

Network Rail is warning of major disruption caused by around 200 improvement projects.

London, Manchester and Cardiff are among the cities worst affected. Many of the capital's main stations will be disrupted at some point over the holiday season – affecting journeys to and from the South West, Wales, East Anglia and Kent.

Work on some schemes will begin on Christmas Eve, which falls on a Saturday. That will give engineers and maintenance teams four days to carry out upgrades before most people return to work.

Shoppers and commuters in London will have to plan their journeys around the full or partial closure of five stations

 Network Rail is warning of major disruption caused by around 200 improvement projects

Train travellers face a Christmas of chaos and cancellations for the third year in a row 

The Great Western mainline to South Wales and the South West is among the worst affected routes. Crossrail engineering works will cause the closure of Paddington station in West London, with trains using Ealing Broadway instead.

Signalling work in South Wales means there will be a rail replacement bus service between Newport and Cardiff.

There will be no services on Christmas Day and only a few on Boxing Day. South West Trains, which operates from London Waterloo, has no services on Boxing Day and will run a Saturday service over the following four days.

A spokesman for Railfuture, an independent group campaigning for a better network, said: 'There's definitely more work this Christmas compared with a decade ago.

'But these works have to be done, and the question is that if they are not carried out at Christmas, when would passengers prefer them to be done?

'It is not ideal, but we think passengers will be understanding – as long as there is not a repeat of the chaos we saw two years ago when improvement works overran.

'Hopefully, important lessons were learned from that episode in terms of better contingency planning and communication, from Network Rail's point of view.

'The public need to know what's going on.' Network Rail, which is state-owned, has urged passengers to plan their journeys in advance using the National Rail Enquiries website. Phil Hufton, managing director for England and Wales, said engineering work is carried out throughout the year but larger upgrades usually take place over bank holidays because up to 50 per cent fewer passengers travel then.

He said the projects would cause 'changes to services over the festive period, so we strongly advise passengers to plan their journeys as early as possible.

'Despite our essential upgrades, the vast majority of the rail network – more than 95 per cent – remains unaffected and will be open for business as usual,' he added. 'This vital investment will make the railway more reliable for years to come, while improving journeys for thousands of passengers. There's never a good time to impact on journeys and I'd like to thank passengers in advance for their patience.'

The improvement works are part of a Railway Upgrade Plan to provide more services to help counter over-crowding. Trains are busier than at any point since the 1920s. Network Rail is in charge of 20,000 miles of track and 18 of the country's major rail hubs but there has been concern about huge delays and spiralling costs for some projects. The Sunday Times yesterday claimed that its bosses have told ministers there was likely to be a black hole in its budget by the end of its five-year spending programme in 2019.

Work on some schemes will begin on Christmas Eve, which falls on a Saturday

The cost of work to electrify the Great Western mainline has ballooned, from £548million in 2011 to an estimated £2.8billion now.

Last Christmas Eve, major rail routes including the Heathrow Express, part of the Great Western mainline and a busy stretch of the West Coast mainline closed for the long weekend over the festive period.

The works were among 500 improvement projects between last Christmas and the New Year.

In February, the then transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said Network Rail should consider closing entire lines to carry out engineering work, rather than trying to complete the majority of projects at night or during public holidays.

He cited a five-week shutdown of Nottingham station in 2013 as an example of how to carry out ambitious major reconstruction projects more quickly.

A review into the 2014 Christmas travel chaos in London, which was conducted by the Rail Delivery Group, called for work to be done outside the holiday period.

It concluded there was 'an argument for undertaking works at times other than Christmas and Easter but around London opportunities would be extremely limited' because of the sheer number of commuters who rely on trains to get to work.