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Wednesday 22 Apr 2015

Network Rail springs into action in the South East this May Bank Holiday – so please check before you travel!

Region & Route:

| Southern

Passengers planning to travel to central London during the first May Bank Holiday from some parts of Kent and South East London are being encouraged to check before they travel as Network Rail continues its improvement work across the region.

Major work around London Bridge, as part of the £6.5bn Thameslink Programme, means there will be no trains to Charing Cross or Waterloo East from Saturday, May 2 to Monday, May 4, and Cannon Street and London Bridge’s high-level platforms (numbers 1-3) will also be closed to trains on the Saturday and Sunday. Alternative routes into London will be available.

Meanwhile, work to build Rochester’s new station and resignal the railway through the Medway Towns continues to make progress, with buses replacing trains between Meopham/Strood and Gillingham on all three days.

Alasdair Coates, Network Rail route managing director for the South East, said: “We have a huge investment programme across the South East this year to improve the reliability of this busy railway for the millions of passengers who use it every week.

“We do as much work as we can overnight but for some major schemes it is only possible to achieve the massive scale of work by closing the railway during the day.

“We would like to thank passengers in advance for bearing with us as it will mean some changes to their travel plans.”

Operator Southeastern is diverting some trains away from London Bridge to London Victoria and London Blackfriars, some services will be terminating at New Cross and it will also be running an amended high speed service to London St Pancras International. Hastings trains will terminate at London Bridge and run via Redhill.

David Statham, managing director of Southeastern, said: "Network Rail is undertaking significant improvement work across our network during the bank holiday weekend, which will affect our passengers travelling across Kent and into London. We encourage people to check before they travel and leave more time for their journey if necessary."

Work will be carried out at the following locations in Kent and South East London:

• London Bridge, track work, recovery of old track, signalling improvements and construction
• Medway Towns resignalling work and work on preparing the track at the new station
• Lewisham, replacing old track (Sunday and Monday only)
• Kent House, track maintenance (Sunday only)
• Sevenoaks track maintenance (Monday only)
• Tulse Hill and Beckenham, replacing old track (Monday only)

ENDS

Notes to Editors

For travel information please see www.southeasternrailway.co.uk or www.nationalrail.co.uk/may

Travel information is available 12-weeks in advance.

There will be more work taking place on the second May Bank Holiday