SWR has not published Christmas 2026 yet. Last year the final Waterloo train for the New Forest left at 19:35 on Christmas Eve; none ran on 25 or 26 December.
Nothing about Christmas 2026 travel through the New Forest has been published yet. South Western Railway’s Christmas page still carries the 2025/26 arrangements, Network Rail’s list of festive engineering work has no Wessex entry for this year, and neither Bluestar nor morebus has replaced last year’s holiday timetable. That will change in November and December. Until then, the useful thing is the pattern the same operators followed last year, because it repeats closely, and the three dates that are already fixed.
The quick answer
Christmas Day is Friday 25 December 2026, the Boxing Day bank holiday is Monday 28 December and New Year’s Day is Friday 1 January 2027 (GOV.UK). Last year no South Western Railway trains ran on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, services finished early on Christmas Eve with the last Waterloo to Weymouth train at 19:35, and London Waterloo was shut to all trains on 27 and 28 December (South Western Railway). Bluestar 6, the Southampton to Lymington bus, ran nothing on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day (Bluestar). The 2026 plans are expected in November.
Trains: what South Western Railway did last year
South Western Railway serves every New Forest station: Totton, Ashurst, Beaulieu Road, Brockenhurst, Sway, New Milton, and the Lymington branch to Lymington Town and Lymington Pier. Its Christmas page, read on 24 September 2026, still sets out the 2025/26 arrangements (South Western Railway). This is what it did.
| Day | What ran |
|---|---|
| Wednesday 24 December | Services ended before 22:00 across the network. Last departures from Waterloo: Weymouth 19:35, Portsmouth via Eastleigh 20:09, Basingstoke stopping 21:42 |
| Thursday 25 and Friday 26 December | No services on the SWR network |
| Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 December | All lines closed between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction. Reduced service everywhere, all London trains starting and ending at Clapham Junction |
| Monday 29 to Wednesday 31 December | Reduced service through Wimbledon, Windsor line trains terminating at Clapham Junction. Extra trains after midnight on New Year's Eve |
| Thursday 1 January | Reduced service on all lines, Windsor lines terminating at Clapham Junction |
| Friday 2 to Sunday 4 January | Windsor lines still terminating at Clapham Junction, with separate work between Basingstoke and Andover or Winchester on Sunday 4 January |
| Monday 5 January | Normal timetable |
The 2025/26 work was announced by the operator on 15 December, ten days before Christmas (South Western Railway). Network Rail’s own list of Christmas and New Year works, which normally names the Wessex route’s festive closures by the autumn, had no 2026 Christmas entry on 24 September; its most recent Wessex item is the Havant re-signalling work in October 2026 (Network Rail).
For the everyday timetable and the fast trains that call at Brockenhurst and New Milton, see New Forest train times to London.
Buses: the two operators’ 2025 patterns
Two companies cover the district. Bluestar runs the 6 from Southampton through Totton, Ashurst, Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst to Lymington, plus the Waterside routes to Hythe and Fawley. morebus runs the X1 and X2 through Lymington and New Milton, and the routes serving Ringwood.
Bluestar’s 2025/26 holiday timetable, still the one on its website, worked like this (Bluestar):
- Christmas Eve: Saturday service on most routes, but the Bluestar 6 kept its normal Wednesday timetable.
- Christmas Day: only the 1X, 17 and 18 in Southampton ran. Nothing in the New Forest.
- Boxing Day: Sunday timetables, except the Bluestar 6, which did not run at all.
- 27 and 28 December: normal Saturday and Sunday services.
- 29 and 30 December, and 2 January: Saturday service, except the 6 and a few others which kept weekday timetables.
- New Year’s Eve: Saturday service, with the 6 on its weekday timetable.
- New Year’s Day: Sunday timetables, and again no Bluestar 6.
morebus followed the same shape for the coast (morebus): X1 and X2 on a Saturday service on Christmas Eve, nothing on Christmas Day except three Bournemouth town routes, no X1, X2, 6, 112 or 119 on Boxing Day, Saturday timetables between Christmas and New Year, and on New Year’s Day special timetables on the m1, m2, 40 and 50 only, so nothing through Lymington or Ringwood.
The bus operators normally publish their Christmas leaflets in late November.
Parking: the council’s free days
New Forest District Council gave four days of free parking in its town and village centre car parks last December, and the town councils each chose a date to match their own switch-on or late-night shopping. The 2025 dates, as announced by the district council and reproduced by Totton and Eling Town Council and Denny Lodge Parish Council, were (Totton and Eling Town Council, Denny Lodge Parish Council):
- District-wide: Saturday 6 December 2025 (Small Business Saturday), and Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 December 2025.
- Town dates: Lymington and Fordingbridge 28 November, Hythe and New Milton 29 November, Ringwood 30 November, Brockenhurst and Milford on Sea 5 December, Burley, Lyndhurst and Totton 13 December, Beaulieu 20 December, Fawley 24 December.
Amenity and coastal car parks were excluded, and machines were covered or switched off on the day. The district council’s own article has since been removed and no 2026 dates have been announced. Our parking in the New Forest page has the year-round charges.
Still to be confirmed
- South Western Railway’s Christmas 2026 timetable and any engineering closures, expected in November, with detail by mid December.
- Bluestar and morebus holiday timetables, expected in late November.
- New Forest District Council’s free parking days for December 2026, expected in November.
- Roadworks over the holiday: the live list is on New Forest roadworks and travel.
This page will be updated as each operator publishes. If you are also wondering when the bins go out, see Christmas bin collections.
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