Last year Merseyrail's last trains left about 8.30pm on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve; tunnels were free on Christmas Day. 2026 times are due in December.
The 2026 Christmas timetables for Wirral’s trains, buses, ferries and tunnels have not been published yet. Last year they appeared on 15 December. Until they do, the 2025 arrangements are the best guide, because the pattern has been steady: the last Merseyrail trains leave at about 8.30pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, there are no trains, no ordinary buses and no ferries on Christmas Day, and both Mersey Tunnels are toll-free overnight from Christmas Eve into Boxing Day.
The quick answer
- Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve: last Merseyrail trains at about 8.30pm in 2025.
- Christmas Day: no trains, no ferries, and only free hospital buses from about noon to 6pm. The tunnels were free from 10pm on Christmas Eve to 6am on Boxing Day.
- Boxing Day: Merseyrail ran a half-hourly service from about 9.30am to 7pm, calling at selected stations. It was the only rail operator in the city region running that day.
This page will be updated with the 2026 times as soon as Merseyrail and Merseytravel publish them.
Merseyrail over Christmas 2025
Merseyrail runs every Wirral line: West Kirby, New Brighton, Chester and Ellesmere Port. Its 2025 notice set out the days that differed from normal (Merseyrail).
| Day | Service |
|---|---|
| Christmas Eve, Wed 24 Dec | Early finish, last trains about 8.30pm |
| Christmas Day, Thu 25 Dec | No trains |
| Boxing Day, Fri 26 Dec | Every 30 minutes, about 9.30am to 7pm, selected stations only |
| New Year's Eve, Wed 31 Dec | Early finish, last trains about 8.30pm |
| New Year's Day, Thu 1 Jan | Half-hourly Sunday service on all lines |
Two things catch people out. The Boxing Day trains call at selected stations only, so a quieter Wirral station may have no service at all that day. And the 8.30pm finish on New Year’s Eve means there is no late train back from Liverpool after midnight.
In 2026 Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve both fall on a Thursday, Christmas Day on a Friday and Boxing Day on a Saturday.
Buses and the free Christmas Day routes
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s 2025 round-up said (Liverpool City Region Combined Authority):
- On Christmas Day a free network of buses, paid for by the Combined Authority, ran from about 12 noon to 6pm on most hospital routes. No other buses ran.
- On Boxing Day and New Year’s Day there were very limited bus services.
- Bus and rail services finish much earlier than usual on New Year’s Eve.
Arriva and Stagecoach both run Wirral routes and publish their own holiday timetables, usually in December. Wirral also has a round of routine bus changes in October, covered in our Wirral bus changes story.
Mersey Tunnels
The Kingsway (Wallasey) and Queensway (Birkenhead) tunnels stayed open throughout the 2025 holiday, and both were toll-free from 10pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on Boxing Day.
Mersey Ferries
The ferries do not run on the main holiday days. In 2025 there were no sailings on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, the weekend of 27 and 28 December, or New Year’s Day. River Explorer cruises ran from 29 to 31 December and on 2 and 4 January, hourly from the Pier Head from 10am to a last departure at 3pm, arriving at Seacombe at 3.20pm. There was no commuter ferry from the Monday before Christmas until Monday 5 January, when the first commuter sailing left Seacombe at 7.20am.
The first of the new Mersey Ferries, the Royal Daffodil, is covered in our Mersey ferry story.
Free parking in Birkenhead last December
Last year Wirral Council made its two Birkenhead multi-storey car parks, the Pyramids and Conway Street, free for the whole of December. The council announced it on 19 November 2025 as help for the town centre after the Grange Road works (Wirral View). It was a one-year offer, and nothing has been announced for 2026 yet.
Elsewhere the normal charges apply. The only place the council stops charging for Christmas Day is its country parks. The details are on our parking in Wirral page.
Engineering works
Merseyrail’s planned engineering page lists no Wirral line closures over Christmas 2026 as of 25 September. The next works that affect Wirral trains are two Sundays in the autumn, 25 October and 1 November, when buses replace trains from Birkenhead North and Rock Ferry into Liverpool during the Northern Line tunnel upgrade (Merseyrail). For trips beyond Merseyside, including the Borderlands line from Bidston, check National Rail nearer the time.
Still to confirm
- The 2026 Merseyrail, bus and ferry timetables. In 2025 the Combined Authority published them on 15 December.
- Whether the Christmas Day free hospital buses and toll-free tunnels return.
- Any free parking offer in Birkenhead for December 2026.
Also on Wirral Online
- Wirral bin collection days: the Friday rounds that move over Christmas and New Year.
- Wirral school term dates: schools break up on Friday 18 December.
- Wirral roadworks and travel and Wirral train times to Liverpool.
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