People travelling into Wellington during the Christmas break may have to use buses rather trains as KiwiRail plans intensive work upgrading the rail network.
Construction will start early on Boxing Day and is set to continue until regular train services resume on January 6.
During this period buses would replace some trains, KiwiRail said.
Most activity will be focused at the entrance to Wellington Station where a third main line is being installed. Once it is operational in mid-2010, the third line will increase capacity and remove a bottleneck at a busy point in the network.
From 6am on December 26, to midnight January 5, buses would replace trains between Wellington and Johnsonville and Petone and Tawa. Wairarapa peak services would operate over the period but midday Wairarapa services would be replaced by buses between Upper Hutt and Wellington.
A Christmas timetable will operate from December 25 to January 5. Wellington region rail programme director David Gordon said the intense work load during the holiday period was designed to get as much done as possible with minimal disruption to commuters.
Elsewhere on the network, work would begin on resurfacing Wellington Railway Station platforms and improvements would continue on the reconstruction of Pukerua Bay platform, and on the upgrade of the overhead line system which powers Wellington's electric trains.
