Passengers still hoping to travel by train over Christmas have been warned to check timetables and leave early, with a strike ending most services at 3pm on Saturday.
Thousands of members of the RMT union at Network Rail will strike from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on December 27.
The last intercity trains on some long-distance routes were scheduled to leave at 8am. Some main routes will not operate at all, partly due to ongoing industrial action, including a ban on overtime for train operating companies.
The RMT had argued it was not targeting Christmas travel when it called the latest strike in the long-running dispute over pay and jobs.
However, Network Rail said the timing of the action meant all passenger trains would need to be in depots before the action began.
Emergency staff are being called in to allow Network Rail to go ahead with most of the £120m of engineering work planned over the Christmas holidays. No passenger train was ever scheduled to run on Christmas Day. The few planned Boxing Day services on Eurostar, Merseyrail and Stansted Express have now been cancelled.
With major stations quiet for much of Friday, rail sources suggested many passengers had decided to travel earlier, while surveys of motoring organizations indicated a third had opted to drive this year rather than catch the train they usually choose.
The last Christmas Eve trains from Edinburgh to London were due to leave at 8am. The last trains to Newcastle and Scotland will leave at 11am, and either way between Manchester and Liverpool at around 2pm.
There will be no direct trains between London and Nottingham or Sheffield on East Midlands Railway, which has urged passengers not to travel on its services on Saturday.
Further disruption will continue after Christmas, with services starting later on December 27 due to strike action, and ongoing problems in South Western, Chiltern, East Midlands and elsewhere due to the RMT overtime ban.
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The TSSA union will also strike for 24 hours on separate days on Cross Country, GWR and West Midland trains. Ongoing engineering work will also affect services, including the West Coast line from London Euston to London Liverpool Street.
There are no signs of an imminent resolution of the dispute. The RMT has accused ministers of “disappearing” since meeting union and industry leaders nine days ago. General secretary Mick Lynch said: “Until the government gives the rail industry a mandate to reach a negotiated agreement on job security, pay and working conditions, our industrial campaign will continue.”
A Department for Transport spokesman said ministers had “worked hard to deliver a fair and reasonable offer”, adding that the public “deserve better than to see their festive celebrations affected by strikes”.