Monday 15 Dec 2014
Fans of festive football urged to plan their travel through London Bridge
- Region & Route:
- | Southern
With a good Christmas vital to football teams’ chances of glory – or avoiding the drop - Network Rail is urging fans to plan their journeys over the festive period as the rebuilding of London Bridge railway station gains pace.
No Southern or Thameslink trains will call at the station from December 20 until January 5, affecting fans travelling to or from South London and Sussex. It will particularly affect supporters visitng south London teams Charlton Athletic, Millwall and Crystal Palace.
London Bridge Underground station is not affected.
Thameslink Programme director, and football fan, Simon Blanchflower said: “We’re working closely with operators to make sure supporters can get where they are going through Christmas and New Year and we’re encouraging fans to look ahead so they can enjoy their matches – whatever the results.”
The rebuilding work is part of the £6.5bn Thameslink Programme, improving north-south travel through London. It will also result in the creation of a new concourse at London Bridge the size of the pitch at Wembley - something fans will hope they get a closer look at with the FA Cup third round kicking off on January 3.
Notes to editors
Details of service changes
From 20 December and throughout next year journeys to or from London will change as our work to improve the railway continues. These changes include:
20 December 2014 to 4 January 2015
- No Southern or Thameslink trains will stop at London Bridge
- There will also be changes to other services, including Southern and Gatwick
- Express services to Victoria and London Overground and Underground
22 to 24 December
- During the morning peak (7.54am – 9.01am) trains to Charing Cross will not stop at London Bridge
5 January 2015 to 2018
- No Bedford to Brighton cross-London Thameslink trains will call at London Bridge station
- A reduced service will run between Brighton and London Bridge in the off-peak and a very limited service will run in the peak
12 January 2015 to August 2016
- Southeastern trains to Charing Cross will not stop at London Bridge for 20 months
- Some Southeastern stations will have all trains diverted to Cannon Street, with no trains stopping at Charing Cross or Waterloo East
For more information please visit ThameslinkProgramme.co.uk or your train operator’s website:
- Southeastern - www.southeasternrailway.co.uk
- Thameslink - www.thameslinkrailway.com
- Southern - www.southernrailway.com
Follow us @TLProgramme
For free text updates text TLP 12 and your home station to 60777
About the Thameslink Programme
The government-sponsored £6.5bn Thameslink Programme will transform north-south travel through London. When complete in 2018 it will give passengers:
- New, 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
- Robust new track and signalling systems offer more reliable journeys
- A completely rebuilt London Bridge station with more space and great facilities
London Bridge facts
- Over 117 million journeys a year go to London Bridge or through it to Cannon Street and Charing Cross – 54 million start or end their at London Bridge itself
- Platform 6 is the busiest in Europe serving 18 trains per hour
- 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
- Up to 24 trains per hour will run in each direction, during the peak, between St Pancras and Blackfriars
- Up to 18 Thameslink trains an hour will run in each direction, during the peak, between London Bridge and St Pancras – currently there are none between 7.30 and 9am
- 178 years old – London Bridge is London’s oldest surviving rail terminus, first opened in Dec 1836
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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Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk