Media centre

Monday 9 Dec 2013

Check before you travel between London, Gatwick Airport and the south coast this Christmas

Region & Route:

| Southern

More than 150 railway workers and engineers will upgrade the railway between London, Gatwick Airport and the south coast this Christmas as one of the biggest investments ever undertaken on the Brighton mainline is completed by Network Rail.

Between Christmas Day and 2 January 2014, three upgrades at London Victoria, Gatwick Airport and a major junction between Redhill and Purley will take place which will impact Southern, First Capital Connect and First Great Western services in the area.

The £80m investment package will deliver long-term benefits to passengers including a more reliable infrastructure, which will help to reduce disruption, and more platforms at Gatwick Airport which will provide greater flexibility for services calling at the station from February 2014.

The work means there will be increases in journey times of up to 90 minutes between London and Gatwick Airport. Information is widely available in stations and passengers are advised to check www.nationalrail.co.uk/christmas before travelling or follow Network Rail, National Rail or affected train operators on twitter for the latest details.

As a result of the work, the Gatwick Express will not operate from 25 December to 1 January. On Boxing Day, Southern will run services between London Bridge and Gatwick Airport (via East Grinstead where buses continue to Gatwick), and from 27 December to 1 January, Southern will operate services between London Victoria and Gatwick. Normal Gatwick Express services will resume on 2 January.

From 27 December to 1 January, First Capital Connect services to and from London Bridge will not run between East Croydon and Gatwick Airport, with alternative routes adding 70-90 minutes to passengers' journeys.

Tim Robinson, Network Rail’s route managing director for the Sussex route, said: “These three upgrades have been carefully planned to take place at the same time over Christmas and the New Year to keep disruption to a minimum. If we had carried out the work at weekends, there would have been up to 15 months of weekend disruption, affecting many more passengers for a much longer amount of time.

“Passengers should check before they travel to find out how the work will impact their journeys and use social media and websites to find the latest information. Together with the train operators and Gatwick Airport, we will continue to provide reminders to reach as many passengers as possible to help keep disruption to a minimum.”

Adrian Witherow, head of terminals at London Gatwick, said: “We have been working closely with Network Rail and the train operating companies to help minimise disruption to rail passengers travelling through Gatwick during the festive period. We advise passengers to check updates before they travel and to allow extra time for their journey to and from the airport, which could take an extra two hours.”

David Scorey, Southern’s performance director, said: “This vital work will improve the performance of our railway and so ultimately benefit passengers, but we appreciate this will be disruptive for those travelling at Christmas and so we are giving as much warning as possible to allow people to plan their journeys. Our advice is travel, but do check before you travel and allow extra time for your journey.”

Keith Jipps, First Capital Connect's customer service director, said: “Our passengers must allow 70-90 minutes longer to complete their journey during this work, which is especially important if catching a flight. We won't have trains between East Croydon and Gatwick Airport; instead we have arranged for FCC tickets to be accepted on Southern services between East Croydon and East Grinstead from where there will be a frequent replacement bus link to and from the airport."

A spokesman for First Great Western said: “While we will continue to operate services between Reading and Redhill, unfortunately we will not be able to run direct services to Gatwick Airport. An hourly bus replacement service will be available from Reigate Station, adding an extra 20 minutes to journey times. We recommend that passengers travelling to the airport change at Reigate and check journey times before they travel.”

The work at the three locations includes:
• A new platform and associated track and signalling work at Gatwick Airport station which will provide greater flexibility for train services calling at the station which has potential to reduce delays caused by congestion on this busy line. Around 1300m of track will be laid, a 50m long footbridge will be renewed and a 250m long new platform, complete with a new lift, escalators and high-level walkway to the station, will be completed. The new platform will become operational in February 2014.

• A major junction replacement between Redhill and Purley (Stoats Nest junction) which will remove the need for speed restrictions and increase the reliability of the infrastructure. Replacing Stoats Nest junction is a huge engineering challenge. A total of 16 separate switches and crossings will be replaced which, if they were laid end to end, would be around one mile long. More than 350 separate welds will be used to complete the work. Around 7,770 tonnes of spoil will be removed and be replaced with the same volume of new ballast, using around 21 trains to transport the material. Once completed, 48 hours of testing will take place to check that everything is working correctly before the junction is handed back.

• New signalling between London Victoria and Battersea will be completed, building on previous work carried out by Network Rail to upgrade the infrastructure and provide a more reliable service. Work will take place at more than 70 separate locations and will see 12 new signals installed. More than 33 separate tests will be completed before the work is completed.

In addition to information in affected stations in London and the south east, Network Rail, National Rail Enquiries, Gatwick Airport and train operators will be tweeting information and reminders. For the latest travel information and details, passengers should visit or follow:
• National Rail, www.nationalrail.co.uk/christmas or @nationalrailenq;
• Gatwick Express, www.gatwickexpress.com or @gatwickexpress;
• Southern, www.southernrailway.com/christmasservices or @southernrailuk;
• First Capital Connect, www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk or @firstcc;
• First Great Western, www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk or @fgw;
• Gatwick Airport, www.gatwickairport.com or @gatwick_airport;
• Transport for London, www.tfl.gov.uk or @tflofficial;
• Network Rail, @networkrail

To help passengers, Southern has taken on an additional 120 staff for customer service duties across the network during this period and and additional volunteers from the company will be at key locations to assist front line staff.

There will be marquees at East Grinstead, Three Bridges and Coulsdon Town stations to provide additional shelter for passengers waiting for bus connections and station cafes at key interchanges will remain open during the period.

Southern will operate around 75 bus journeys every hour during the morning peak and approximately 1400 journeys every day. Around 250 bus company staff will be on hand comprising of drivers, controllers and baggage handlers.