Some of London’s main railway stations will be closed and train services diverted around Christmas, Network Rail has said.

Passengers have been advised to plan ahead for the festive period, with Liverpool Street – now Britain’s busiest station – shut for eight days, Paddington for three days, and nine days of work planned affecting Thameslink and East Midlands services north of St Pancras.

Trains to London’s four biggest airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton – will all be affected by the closures.

Elsewhere, a week of work around Crewe will keep the station closed for an extra day after Boxing Day and reduce services to Liverpool and Manchester.

Despite previous calls to stop planned disruption over festive periods, Network Rail said tens of thousands of railway engineers would be working over Christmas and new year to provide better, more reliable services for passengers at a time when the work causes much less disruption than during a regular week.

The most severe disruption looks likely to be on the Midland mainline from St Pancras. There will be no East Midlands Railway services south of Bedford and no Thameslink services up to Harpenden from 21 to 29 December. Passengers who usually take the train north from St Pancras will be diverted to other stations and connecting buses to reach their destinations.

No services will call at London Paddington between 27 and 29 December due to work on HS2’s new Old Oak Common station. Some trains will run to and from Euston instead but the majority will start or stop at Reading and Ealing Broadway.

Work at Bishopsgate tunnel and on the station itself will close Liverpool Street from 25 December to 2 January. Greater Anglia services including Stansted Express will be diverted via Stratford, while London Overground services will terminate at London Fields.

The signalling work at Crewe will close the station on 27 December and services will be affected until 3 January.

Many trains into Cambridge will be replaced by buses from Christmas until 6 January.

The first timetables for train services running over Christmas are expected to be available online from this weekend at National Rail Enquiries or individual train operator websites.

Although rail bosses had discussed moving engineering works away from public holidays to weekdays to reflect changing travel patterns, passenger numbers between Christmas and new year are still typically less than half the level of other weeks in November or early December, according to Network Rail.

Helen Hamlin, Network Rail’s director of system operations, said: “The festive period is a unique opportunity, when fewer people are travelling, to do big pieces of work to make services better, more punctual and more reliable.

“The major projects we’re undertaking would otherwise take many weekends to complete and cause much more disruption. Whilst roads are busier during the holidays, it’s actually one of the quietest times on the railway, meaning we can improve things whilst causing less disruption to passengers and freight flows.”

She added: “Most of the railway will be open as normal over Christmas and new year, so passengers can go ahead and book their travel – timetables will start to go live this weekend. Just be sure to plan ahead as there will be significant changes to journeys on some key routes.”