Football fans across London look set to benefit from a Christmas bonus of sorts, at least if they want to get to their club’s Boxing Day fixture, as the Mayor of London has announced that this year, for the first time, there’s to be a service on London Overground on December 26.

London Overground will be running services on Boxing Day for the first time this year

In an answer provided last month at Mayor’s Question Time, Sadiq Khan said, “Transport for London is planning to run Boxing Day services on the London Overground this year. Services will be subject to planned engineering work and TfL is currently finalising the details with Network Rail and Arriva Rail London.”

Boxing Day is traditionally one of the biggest sporting days of the year, with a packed programme of football matches. The Premier League fixtures just published have Crystal Palace at home on December 26 to West Ham, while having some public transport services operating in the capital on that day might help to get Southampton fans to their game at Chelsea, while Brighton are due to play at Tottenham.

London Overground is part of the national rail network, but is operated under a concession from TfL and is complementary to the capital’s Underground system, with 112 stations served. Since coming under TfL control in 2007, there has been a 400 per cent increase in passengers using London Overground trains, which run from West Croydon, Norwood Junction and Anerley, through New Cross and into Canary Wharf and east London.

A Boxing Day service on the Overground has been promised since 2016, when Arriva was appointed as the network’s operator by TfL.

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