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Wednesday 27 Jul 2016

SUSSEX: One month to go until passengers will see what lies beneath at London Bridge station as the Thameslink Programme prepares to open first section of new concourse.

Region & Route:

| Southern

This week marks one month until passengers from South London and Sussex will be able to enjoy the first part of London Bridge’s massive new concourse for the first time.

Passengers on Southern and Thameslink trains will see the hoardings on their platforms come down over the August Bank Holiday and the first two-thirds of the station underneath their feet will open for business. Passengers on Southeastern trains travelling from East Sussex are advised that there will be changes to their services and to check before they travel.

The concourse, which will be the largest in Britain when completed in January 2018, has been under construction by Network Rail and contractors Costain for the past four years. Building work will now move away from the Southern and future Thameslink platforms towards the north of the station, where trains to Cannon Street run.

Lifts, stairs and escalators will link the new concourse with platforms and give passengers new routes out of the station, as well as new shops and cafes.

Thameslink Programme director Simon Blanchflower said: “Passengers have been using our new platforms for some time, with the work on the new concourse hidden behind hoardings.”

“This August we will open the doors for the first two-thirds of the new station and people will see the massive scale of the work we have been doing, as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan.”

We still have some way to go and building work will continue until 2018 – however I know people will enjoy their new station and the sense of space that it brings. In addition, our work to build the new railway junction at Bermondsey is progressing well which in due course will help the reliability of trains into London Bridge from East Croydon and beyond.”

Dyan Crowther, Chief Operating Office at Govia Thameslink Railway, said: “We’re thrilled that this major phase of the station is nearing completion. The new lower concourse with a permanent ticket office and escalators to our Southern platforms above will be welcomed by passengers.

“We look forward to the end of the project, in 2018, when our Thameslink services can return to London Bridge, increasing frequency and capacity on the route.”

Richard Dean, Train Services Director at Southeastern, said: “We’re really pleased that our passengers will be able to start using the new station. There’s still a lot of work to do and we need to make major changes to our services to allow the next phrase to happen. We ask that passengers check southeasternrailway.co.uk/august for full details of how their services will be affected, especially on the working days, Tuesday 30 August – Thursday 1 September when we’ll be running fewer trains than normal.”

Passengers from Sussex who interchange with Southeastern at London Bridge will find a change in services from this August, as Cannon Street trains will no longer call at the station. However, Charing Cross services, via Waterloo East, will begin again. London Bridge is expected to be busier during this time and queueing systems may be in place.

People heading for the Tube will have a variety of different routes open to them, including a peak time route through the new concourse, the existing concourse under the Shard and also out through the new entrances and exits onto St Thomas Street.

The complete station will open to passengers in January 2018.

NOTES

About Thameslink Programme

The Government-sponsored Thameslink Programme is  transforming north-south travel through London. When complete in 2018 it will give passengers:

• New longer and more spacious trains running every 2 to 3 minutes through central London in the peak
• Improved connections and better options to more destinations on an expanded Thameslink network including Cambridge and Peterborough
• More robust tracks and state-of-the art signalling and more reliable trains to make journeys more reliable.
• Completely rebuilt stations at Blackfriars and London Bridge

London Bridge facts

Over 120 million people a year go to London Bridge or through it to Cannon Street and Charing Cross – around 50 million start or end their at London Bridge itself

The new concourse at London Bridge will be bigger than the pitch at Wembley, increasing passenger capacity by 65%

London Bridge will be longer than the Shard is tall From 2018, more frequent services:

Between Blackfriars and St Pancras - up to 24 trains per hour in each direction during the peak

Between London Bridge and St Pancras - up to 18 Thameslink trains an hour in each direction, during the peak.

179 years old – London Bridge is London’s oldest surviving rail terminus, first opened in Dec 1836