Why the railways often seem to be in such chaos over Christmas

A group of men in orange outfits is finalizing checks on huge slabs of railway track, preparing them to be installed over Christmas and New Year. Rail bosses get significant engineering and renovations done at a time when many commuters are off work to celebrate with friends and family. So, those orange-clad employees are out of service. Carl Foy has been on service for about 20 of the 27 Christmases he has served. With his two grown-up sons, who are also rail workers, out there with him this year, it would add to the count. Some people suspect him of being mad for doing it. However, Carl claims that it is just accepted as part of the job.

We bring in a few mince pies, and the site offices may have a little bit of tinsel around,

he says. "We make it as enjoyable as we can and then get to the work.

This Christmas, they'll be working on Hanslope Junction, a vital portion of the West Coast Main Line, which is wearing out, and it's one of the country's biggest scheduled projects. Nearly 500 trains use it every day, and an increasing number of faults are causing delays, with the consequences spreading throughout the network. Now, the entire thing, which includes four tracks, will be re-laid. It's a massive and complicated puzzle of 130 separate track panels, not something that can be done when trains are roaring up and down. So, it will leave passengers with no trains between Milton Keynes and Rugby, Milton Keynés and Northampton, not only on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but also on the morning of 5 January. It means there are no direct trains connecting London Euston and north-west England and Scotland for 11 days. It's a similar tale up and down the country, with other initiatives, such as the upgrading of signalling technologies, which are also included. In all, 5 percent of the rail network will be offline over the festive period - part of a £160 million engineering project led by Network Rail.

Many of these are big jobs, not regular maintenance, that have long been anticipated, with funding provided as part of Network Rail's five-yearly strategic goals. With millions of people travelling around the country over the holiday season, causing so much chaos to many, why schedule it now? Is it all a case of sound planning or an indicator of something amiss with Britain's rail network?

Frustration at Euston station

If you're looking for passengers at London Euston station weeks before Christmas, it won't take long to find some who are affected. One woman tells me,

My sister-in-law is coming to visit, and she's had a real problem trying to find a train.

Every train's got two or three changes.

Unable to find a direct route, and with a longer journey time, she modified the dates of her journey to avoid the disruption. Another passenger, who is heading for the North of England, is wondering if the train will be able to be on time.

It's quicker for me to drive rather than run the risk of getting there and not being able to return.

Obviously there are a lot less commuters over the Christmas period, and I can see why they do it at this time of year, but it's not encouraging to get home. To see your friends and family.

The discussion over whether holidays should be scheduled over Christmas is a difficult one: on the one hand, train bosses estimate that the effect on commuters going to work would be minimal, considering that so many companies have closed for Christmas.

It's the quietest time of year for the railway and our customers, so we squeeze in as much work as possible,

says Jake Kelly, a route managing director at Network Rail. On the other hand, it could lead to a bottleneck, according to Gareth Dennis, a rail engineer, campaigner, and author of How the Railways Will Change the Future. It's incredibly costly, He says of another issue: it's also very expensive.All those employees are getting paid at a faster rate than they should because they are losing a lot of family and personal time over the course of time. It's always a costly option, Mr Kelly acknowledges, and doing work over Christmas is expensive, especially when families around the UK are celebrating. "But, he says, it's a difficult trade-off between minimizing customer disruption and cost that is balancing disruption.

Germany and France do it differently

When compared to other European countries, Britain is fairly unique (with the exception of Italy) in its particularly broad approach to doing this kind of rail work at Easter and Christmas, as Mr Dennis puts it. This is partially because rail networks in other nations, such as Germany and France, are laid out differently.

Where the country's square shape isn't quite north-south, their rail network isn’t really north-north-s outh, it's much more of a

You can get around, and they can spread their engineering jobs out a bit more.

The high demand for passenger flights in the United Kingdom also poses a challenge.

It has one of Europe's most heavily used railways - [it] gets tired and worn out. According to he, the West Coast Main Line does not have the capacity to accommodate any more trains, but the East Coast Mainline's new December schedule would make it much busier. However, this is just part of the tale. A legacy of underinvestment is another factor that contributes to the network's creaking in some regions.

Years of 'mend and make do'

Stewart Palmer spent 38 years on the railway, including spells with Network Rail's predecessor Railtrack and as the managing director of what was then called South West Trains. The money was never really there to do the jobs that was needed in the past, even before the war period, and for decades, there was a tendency, according to him, wards mend and make do.There's so much work to do right nowhashas arisen over a long history. He says that engineering jobs have often been postponed. Speed limits on certain portions of the track has been one way to keep the railway running smoothly until work can be carried out. However, the history of a 25-year rail disaster in Hertfordshire is a reminder of how crucial it is to ensure that deteriorated rail is restored in good time. A train carrying 12 employees and 170 passengers came to a halt outside Hatfield's town on Tuesday. Four of the nine carriages were detained, and three more were flung over on their side, killing four bystanders. A formal investigation into the accident revealed a string of mistakes by rail bosses and engineers. One of those causes, which was emphasized by an investigation, was a failure to locate and repair or replace the rapidly decaying rail.

This led to a slew of engineering investigations, but it also resulted in the restoration of a massive amount of rail in a record time,

Mr Dennis says.

Extreme weather and the 'paperclip' effect

The weather also has an effect on the weather. Climate change, according to Network Rail, is a significant issue.

Extreme weather caused by climate change is on the rise.

This will have an effect on how quickly and efficiently we can operate the railway,

it says on its website. These extreme weather conditions do not only result in equipment breakdowns, but also influence how quickly things wear out. Climate change, according to William Powrie, a professor of Geoscientical Engineering at the University of Southampton, has a long list of dangers for railways. These heat railway tracks are often more than they can handle, often causing them to buckle in the hot summers. High winds can also damage overhead lines. He's particularly worried about the

paperclip

effect, which he describes. Many British railways are constructed on clay soil that shrinks in the summer as vegetation drains out water and increases in the winter. However, this expand-and-shrink cycle is getting more popular, he warns.

It's a bit like if you get a paperclip and bend it forwards, bend it backwards. For a little, it's fine, but it will eventually break.

It's not only tracks that need to be looked after, but also embankments and drainage along railway tracks. A train traveling from Glasgow to London on the West Coast Main Line derailed near Carlisle in November after a landslip that killed four people, leaving four others dead. A independent inquiry into the causes of a train derailment would look at a number of potential problems. According to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch's preliminary investigation, a drainage channel was

unable to accommodate the volume of water that was present. Network Rail claims to be aware of climate change-related risks, and that they are moving money around to deal with it. Their latest five-year business plan earmarked £2. The 8bn will help deal with extreme weather and climate change.

Cost savings and 'tough choices'

In the middle of all of this, the company has promised to make cost savings of £3. 9bn. Bosses have been transparent about the financial challenges they face. In an update this summer, Andrew Haines, Network Rail's then-chief executive, said,

We continue to feel the effects of inflation and rising supply chain costs.

Tough choicesincludeprioritizing funds that are located on busier parts of the network,

he said. The Office of Rail and Road, the control, has warned that constrained funds requiring Network Rail to invest

less on renewals and maintenancecould result inmore asset failures and consequently disruption to train operations in the long run

as a result of higher costs in the future. Of course, millions of passengers this Christmas will simply want to get home. People are being encouraged to research and plan ahead before traveling - a warning that is as valid at this time of year as Christmas trees or mulled wine. So, will railway passengers around the country have a smoother Christmas next year? Unlikely, argues Jake Kelly of Network Rail. Years of planning can be involved in a project like Hanslope Junction near Milton Keynes.

We're already starting to finalize [plans] for next yearwith a pipeline that is three or four years long, he says. Additional reporting: Florence Freeman. Top image credit: Getty Images. BBC InDepthis the home of the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the day's biggest topics. You can now sign up for alerts that will alert you whenever an InDepth story is published - click here to find out how.