Virgin Trains issued an announcement on Wednesday 19 December as follows:

We have been advised by Network Rail today (19 December) that engineering work at Rugby planned for the four days after Boxing Day cannot now be completed as scheduled and will continue through into 31 December.  

Chris Gibb, Managing Director for Virgin Trains said,   "I am very disappointed that Network Rail (NR) has given us so little opportunity to warn our passengers of this further disruption.  We were first warned of the possibility of this additional work on 6 December.  We had already agreed with NR several months ago that 31 December would be the day between Christmas and New Year that we would be able to run direct services to and from Euston.  This information was placed in the industry's booking and information systems in good faith with about 50,000 customers now having already planned and booked their journeys.  Because of the seriousness of the situation we felt it necessary to refer the matter to the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).  We simply cannot have NR bullying train operators in this way just because their engineering planning processes are in a mess.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has now considered the matter and decided to investigate whether NR has breached its operators' licence, but has decided it is not in the longer term interests of passengers to issue a provisional order preventing the line closure at Rugby on 31 December.   

Virgin Trains will operate the best possible service for their customers on 31 December and guarantees that everyone will get to their destinations in time to celebrate the New Year.   The pattern of service will be trains between Euston and Northampton with a frequent replacement coach service from Northampton to Birmingham International connecting into trains to the West Midlands, North Wales, North West England and Scotland.  Journey times are likely to be extended by approximately one hour although in some cases this could be more.

For further details all customers intending to travel on New Years Eve should check as near as possible to 31 December with nationalrail.co.uk.                             
Passengers with valid tickets can use the following alternative routes:-

North West via Sheffield to London St Pancras
West Midlands to London Marylebone
North West and Midlands via Reading to London Paddington
Scotland to London Kings Cross