RAIL services on the mainline to London are to run with less disruptions from the end of this year as Network Rail nears the end of its renewal programme.

Network Rail and Greater Anglia have together agreed to reduce the amount of planned disruptive engineering work and need for bus replacement services this Christmas and at weekends in 2013.

Current work at weekends is expected to go on until late November. Any disruption in December is scheduled to be carried out on Saturday nights and completed by breakfast time services on the Sundays.

For the first time in many years, there will only be minor disruption during the Christmas and New Year period, with no complete line closures. Under the new improvement works schedule for 2013, only two Saturdays on the main line are affected by any bus journeys, and there are no bus replacements from the end of March until early October.

Dave Ward, Network Rail route managing director for Anglia, said: “In the last few years, we have done a huge amount of work investing millions of pounds to renew crucial parts of this line to benefit passengers for years to come. “There is still a huge amount of work to do to improve things further but we have found a much better balance, which I hope passengers will welcome.”

Ruud Haket, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “I am delighted that our positive partnership and alliance with Network Rail has enabled us to take a fresh look at the scheduling of infrastructure works to put passenger needs first whilst maintaining important improvements.”

Since 2007, there have been 30 weekends a year requiring bus replacements. In 2013, there will be seven weekends of work.