Festive Rail Travel In Scotland Shifts Focus to Boxing Day
Rail services across Scotland will operate differently over the 2025 festive season, with timetable changes in place from 24 December through the first days of January. Trains will run with reduced hours on key evenings, pause entirely on certain public holidays, and expand selectively on Boxing Day. Together, these changes define when rail travel is practical and when alternative transport will be necessary during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
Between Christmas and New Year, rail operations will follow a fixed schedule that travellers should factor into their plans. Confirmed service changes are as follows:
- Tuesday, 24 December (Christmas Eve): last trains depart earlier than normal
- Wednesday, 25 December (Christmas Day): no train services
- Thursday, 26 December (Boxing Day): expanded timetable
- Wednesday, 31 December (New Year’s Eve): earlier final departures
- Thursday, 1 January 2026 (New Year’s Day): no train services
This structure concentrates most travel opportunities into limited windows.
What travellers should expect on Boxing Day
Thursday, 26 December becomes the most usable rail day of the festive period. For the first time, trains will operate to and from Aberdeen on Boxing Day, with services every two hours between Aberdeen and Edinburgh Waverley and between Arbroath and Edinburgh Waverley. This restores rail access to the north east on a day when long-distance travel has traditionally been restricted, reducing reliance on road transport.
Additional Boxing Day routes operating on 26 December include:
- Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High
- Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley via Bathgate
- Glasgow Central to Edinburgh Waverley via Shotts
- Perth to Edinburgh Waverley via Dunfermline
- Dunblane to Edinburgh Waverley
- Alloa to Glasgow Queen Street
- Leven to Edinburgh Waverley via Kirkcaldy
These services allow more flexible regional and intercity movement for day trips and return journeys.
Outside Boxing Day, a near-normal service will operate from Saturday, 27 December to Tuesday, 30 December, except where engineering works apply, followed by a revised timetable on Friday, 2 January 2026. This means festive rail travel is possible but fragmented. While the 26 December expansion strengthens connections across the country, travellers will still need to plan carefully, as festive services do not follow the usual holiday travel patterns.