Essential railway improvements are to take place on the Bakerloo line and London Overground in the run up to Christmas.

Between Saturday 17 and Friday 23 December Network Rail engineers will carry out major improvements to a 20-mile stretch of railway in north London.

The scale of the work means the Bakerloo line between Queen's Park and Harrow & Wealdstone and the London Overground between Euston and Watford Junction will be closed.

The improvements in December will include:

• Installing 6,000 modern concrete sleepers in place of wooden ones dating back to the 1950s

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• Upgrading 1.6km of railway drainage between Harlesden and Kenton to prevent future flooding

• Replacing 10km of cabling for signals – traffic lights for trains

• Improvements to 5 stations north of Queen's Park Station makeovers will include platform resurfacing and roof canopy maintenance

• Upgrading the power supply for Underground and Overground trains

• Demolition of a derelict, railway-locked electricity substation in danger of collapse.

Closing the railway for consecutive days means that maintenance teams can carry out multiple complex projects at once which would otherwise take years of weekend or overnight working.

For instance, the sleeper replacements could have taken between 7-8 years of midweek overnight shifts to get done.

For the 10km signal cable replacement, it's estimated 10 years of work is being condensed into this seven-day-closure, saving both time and taxpayers' money.

Between Saturday 17 and Friday 23 December, Transport for London passengers affected by the upgrades can complete their journeys by using alternative rail lines, existing or temporary bus routes.