Media centre

Thursday 26 Mar 2015

Major investment work on the railways in London and Kent means big changes to trains this Easter

Region & Route:

| Southern

Passengers planning to travel into London from Kent and the South East this Easter should check before they travel as Network Rail will be carrying out a major improvement programme in the area over all four days of the Bank Holiday.

Passengers planning to travel into London from Kent and the South East this Easter should check before they travel as Network Rail will be carrying out a major improvement programme in the area over all four days of the Bank Holiday.

Months of planning with operators has gone in to making sure passengers will still be able to travel, either through diversions or with some bus services.

However, there will be no trains from London Charing Cross, Waterloo East, and Cannon Street, and work will also affect the line from Longfield to Sittingbourne and Maidstone to Gravesend.

Network Rail’s route managing director for the South East, Dave Ward, said: “We’re investing millions of pounds to improve the railway for our passengers but to do that we will have to make some changes over Easter.

“There’s no good time to this work and we have to do it when the trains are less busy, outside the working week.

“From new track to new signals, this work will play an important part in increasing the reliability of London and Kent’s railways”

Operator Southeastern’s Managing Director David Statham said: “Network Rail has to undertake this important engineering work to deliver vital improvements to the railway. We know that this will impact many of our passengers and that is why we are urging all passengers planning to travel over Easter to check before they travel and follow our Twitter feed for live information about our trains.” 

What is the impact?

Work connected to the Government-sponsored £6.5bn Thameslink Programme around London Bridge means there will be no trains to or from Charing Cross, Waterloo East and Cannon Street over the Easter bank holiday weekend, with services from Kent diverted to Blackfriars and Victoria, or terminating short. Southeastern’s Hastings services will terminate at London Bridge and there will be some amendments to a small number of Southern and Thameslink services that serve the station.

Meanwhile, installation and testing of a £145m signalling project stretching from Longfield to Sittingbourne will continue over the weekend, to eventually replace signals and signal boxes installed in the 1950s.

As a result, there will be no trains between Faversham and Swanley on Friday and Saturday; Faversham and Sole Street on Sunday and Monday and no trains between Maidstone West and Gravesend on Sunday and Monday. Buses will replace trains on those routes and High Speed services from Margate, Canterbury, Dover and Ashford will continue to run to St Pancras.

Notes

The Thameslink Programme is completely rebuilding the station, its track and signalling to improve reliability and provide a better environment for passengers. Over Easter, major track work will see new lines brought into use near New Cross and London Bridge and old track dismantled.

Meanwhile, work on the line from Longfield to Sittingbourne and the branch down to Strood is part of a project to replace signalling equipment installed in the late 1950s.