Check before you travel through Wimbledon in the New Year as £7m investment project tackles railway reliability

Monday 17 Nov 2014

Check before you travel through Wimbledon in the New Year as £7m investment project tackles railway reliability

Region & Route:: | Southern: Wessex; | Southern

The Network Rail-South West Trains Alliance has announced a £7m upgrade to the railway through Wimbledon, improving reliability and punctuality for hundreds of thousands of passengers each day on one of the busiest parts of Britain’s rail network.

More than 72 South West Trains per hour pass through Wimbledon at peak times and as a result, the railway around the station has a critical impact on punctuality across the network.

The project will replace a dozen sets of points - which allow trains to cross between different lines - to the west of Wimbledon station. Work will take place over weekends from Christmas through to February, with no South West Trains able to call at, or run through, Wimbledon on those weekends and an amended timetable in place at many stations. Thameslink services will continue to run to Wimbledon from London via Tooting during the affected weekends, however there will be no services from Wimbledon to Sutton via St Helier.

John Halsall, infrastructure director for the Network Rail-South West Alliance, said: “This vital project will significantly improve one of the most important sections of railway on our route, which will boost reliability and punctuality for passengers travelling through Wimbledon and from many other stations and locations.
“We have scheduled the work in order to minimise disruption to passengers as much as possible but if you, friends or family are travelling during these times, I strongly suggest checking travel details first.

“This work will have a significant impact on our services and we apologise for the inconvenience caused but they are a vital part of improving our network and our service to passengers.”

The project, being carried out by Network Rail and its contractors Colas Rail, will also involve preparatory work on some midweek nights between 23rd November and mid December which will affect a small number of late night services.

For more information and to plan your journey during these times, please visit: http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/wimbledonengineering.aspx

Improvement work at London Bridge over Christmas and throughout 2015 may also affect passenger’s journeys. Find out more on ThameslinkProgramme.co.uk

Notes to editors

Notes to editors
During the following dates, there will be no South West Trains between Clapham Junction and Surbiton, or between Clapham Junction and Kingston via Wimbledon:
December 25th – 4am Saturday December 27th
January 3rd and 4th
January 10th and 11th
January 17th and 18th
January 24th and 25th
January 31st and February 1st
February 14 and 15th
London Underground services are not affected by the work.

The Network Rail / South West Trains Alliance was formed on 29 April 2012 with the aim of delivering an improved service for passengers with faster, more customer-focused decision-making. It is also a step towards delivering a more efficient and cost effective railway for the long term.

A single joint management team now look after train services and infrastructure across the South West Trains / Wessex route
The Alliance is the first of its kind in the UK
Train services operated by the Alliance are some of the busiest commuter train services in the UK with over 2,000 passenger and freight services running on the network every day. The route covers 643 miles of track, with 1375 sets of points and 4394 signals

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - South East route
020 3357 7969
southeastroutecomms@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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