Monday 5 Sep 2016

VIDEO: Completion of major track rebuilding allows Cannon Street station to reopen and London Bridge redevelopment to move into final phase

Region & Route:
| Southern

Passengers in south-east London and Kent have been thanked for their patience after a planned closure of Cannon Street last week allowed for the completion of the latest major phase of the Thameslink Programme.

Our timelapse footage shows the huge project that took place over the August Bank Holiday week to rearrange tracks at London Bridge. Work has now begun to rebuild the final remaining section of the old station. 

This work could only be carried out while the tracks between London Bridge and Cannon Street were closed. Following the completion of the work on Friday, the new Southeastern timetable is fully operational, with the following major changes in place:

  • Cannon Street trains will not call at London Bridge until January 2018
  • Charing Cross services, via Waterloo East, are once again calling at London Bridge for the first time since January 2015

There will also be changes during the morning and evening peak until August 2017:

  • Morning peak: trains from Charing Cross and Waterloo East will not stop at London Bridge on Mondays to Fridays, between 08:04 and 09:17
  • Evening peak: trains to Waterloo East and Charing Cross will not stop at London Bridge on Mondays to Fridays, between 16:37 and 18:03

On Monday, two-thirds of the new concourse at London Bridge also opened to passengers, including the new platforms 7-9 for Southeastern services.

Simon Blanchflower, Thameslink Programme director for Network Rail, said: “We appreciate that the last week has been difficult for many passengers and thank them for their patience. The closure of Cannon Street was vital to allow Network Rail engineers to rebuild the tracks as part of our redevelopment of London Bridge station, part of the Railway Upgrade Plan.

“When the new station is complete in 2018, passengers will see an even bigger station with fantastic facilities and a better, more reliable railway.”

Richard Dean, train services director at Southeastern, said: “We’d like to thank our passengers for bearing with us during the ongoing rebuild of London Bridge. We’re really pleased that they’re now able to start using and enjoying part of the new station and it really does look great.

“Our new timetable does mean changes for some people; those travelling on Cannon Street trains will now have to change to get to London Bridge or use an alternative route. Charing Cross services will once again call at London Bridge, so we urge all of our passengers to check before they travel.”

Mr Dean added:  "We’re really sorry that some of our passengers had their journeys disrupted last week. If you were delayed by 30 minutes or more you can claim Delay Repay compensation by visiting our website or completing a form available at any staffed station.”

To check your revised train times download the free ‘Southeastern On Track’ app or visit southeasternrailway.co.uk.

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

 

Contact information

Passengers / community members
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Latest travel advice
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Alexandra.Swann@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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