Media centre

Wednesday 23 Jun 2021

Bumper May and June for south London track and signalling upgrades

Region & Route:

Southern: Sussex

| Southern

Passengers travelling on the south London lines into London Victoria can look forward to more reliable journeys after Network Rail delivered a bumper programme of upgrades over May and June. 

The work continues on Sunday 27 June with more works planned for later in the autumn and winter. It is being delivered as part of the Victoria phase 3 re-signalling project, a major project to upgrade 1980s signalling and key sections of track on the lines between London Victoria, Clapham Junction and Streatham. 

A packed programme of work over five recent weekends has seen the switches and crossings, the moveable track that allow train to change paths, at Balham North junction and Falcon Junction (Clapham) replaced with new, more reliable equipment.

Preparation work for the switch-on of the new signalling system and recontrol of the area to the state-of-the-art Three Bridge Rail Operating Centre made great progress with all key milestones for power and fibre cables, elevated cable routes, gantry foundation piles and signalling equipment cases met. 

Network Rail also used the closures over May to progress a major drainage renewal to prevent delays due to flooding in the Clapham Junction area.

Shaun King, Network Rail route director, Sussex, said: “We’d like to thank those passengers travelling over May for their patience while we worked to upgrade and modernise the infrastructure on this part of the network to give passengers better, more reliable journeys. Passengers will see immediate benefits from our work to improve drainage and track, with further improvements to come once the new signalling comes into use in 2023”.  

Chris Fowler, Customer Services Director for Southern, said: “On behalf of our current and returning passengers, we thank Network Rail for progressing these vital signalling and drainage upgrades right on schedule.

“This coming Sunday there will be no Southern trains between Victoria and East Croydon, so if you do need to travel, please check your route in advance. You can be assured we’re working hard with our railway partners to keep rail travel safe, while we build a better all-round experience for our customers.”

Following the Sunday 27 June closure, next line closures on the project will be Saturday 16 to Sunday 17 October, Saturday 27 to Sunday 28 November, and Saturday 25 December 2021 – Sunday 2 January 2022 (9-day closure).

Learn more at www.networkrail.co.uk/victoriaresignalling   

Work delivered over May in numbers:

Resignalling project

• 21000 metres of power cable installation 
• 4000 metres of fibre cable installation
• 2000 metres - elevated cable route
• 2 of 8 gantry piling foundations

Balham North junction

• 6 point ends
• New and improved junction layout
• 349 yards of track renewed

Falcon junction (Clapham)

• 4 point ends
• New and improved junction layout
• 248 yards of track renewed