Thursday 8 Jan 2015
No Charing Cross trains to call at London Bridge rail station from Monday – and further changes planned this weekend
- Region & Route:
- | Southern
Passengers who travel to London Bridge on Southeastern’s Charing Cross trains will have to take different routes to the station from this Monday as the next stage of the massive station rebuilding takes shape.
In addition, improvement work to the tracks means that there are no Southeastern trains to Charing Cross, Waterloo East and Cannon Street and very few to London Bridge this weekend (January 10-11) only. Southern and Thameslink services will operate as usual.
Work is about to begin on platforms on the north side of the station, where trains run through to Charing Cross and Waterloo East, as part of the £6.5bn Government-sponsored Thameslink Programme. The complete rebuilding of London Bridge rail station is a key part of the project to improve services and destinations on the north/south route through central London.
Programme Director Simon Blanchflower said: “Passengers will have seen London Bridge changing around them over the past year or so and this next step brings us closer to our goal of creating a fantastic new station for London. However, as we begin rebuilding platforms 5 and 6, there will be no Charing Cross trains able to call at the station between now and August 2016.
“We realise this will mean big changes to some people’s journeys and we have worked with operators across the industry, including Transport for London, to make sure people can plan their new journeys and get to their destinations without extra cost.”
Network Rail has apologised to passengers following disruption this week when a new timetable was introduced for Southern and Thameslink trains at London Bridge. As a result, the company is reviewing the services after this week and has made changes to ease crowding on the station concourse, including new customer information screens and more staff.
Alternatives
From January to the end of August 2016, National Rail tickets to and from London terminals issued by Southeastern, Thameslink and Southern trains will be accepted at selected Underground stations in South London without extra charge. New tickets need to be issued to some season ticket holders before 12 January 2015, to allow them to be used on the Transport for London network.
London Bridge Underground station is not affected, however Tube and Overground services in South London may be significantly more crowded as result of the works at London Bridge mainline station, particularly at the busiest times.
The changes at London Bridge have also meant a complete change to Southeastern’s train times and routes across Kent.
David Statham, managing director of Southeastern, said: “The project to rebuild London Bridge station will provide a brand new station with a concourse the size of the pitch at Wembley Stadium, new journey opportunities to the north and south of England, and it will untangle the railway lines to remove the bottleneck we experience today.
“This will however, mean our passengers, particularly those who use London Bridge station will need to change their travel patterns while the work is carried out. Our new timetable is designed to provide a service that meets demand at a time when track capacity has much reduced, whilst also providing new journey opportunities, longer trains and later services.
“We consulted with our customers and stakeholders to develop our plans and this timetable balances the competing needs of passengers with the infrastructure constraints.”
Notes to editors
The principal changes to Southeastern services to accommodate the Thameslink Programme include:
• Charing Cross trains won’t stop at London Bridge from January 2015 until August 2016. If passengers need London Bridge they should catch a Cannon Street service or interchange enroute.
• Charing Cross services to and from New Cross, St Johns, Deptford, Greenwich, Maze Hill and Westcombe Park will be permanently diverted to and from Cannon Street. There will be fewer peak trains (two fewer trains in the morning peak, and four fewer trains in the evening peak). The line will be served by longer trains to boost capacity in peak hours
• Charing Cross services to Plumstead, Woolwich Dockyard, Belvedere and Erith will also be diverted to run to/from Cannon Street
• Some trains will be diverted to or from an alternative London terminal
• Longer metro trains to increase capacity
• Longer opening hours for Cannon Street station (0500-0100), including all day opening on Sundays. (Cannon Street tube station to also offer longer opening hours)
• Diversion of some trains from Rochester, Broadstairs, Ashford, Dover and Orpington into London Blackfriars
• Since 20 December, Rochester to Bedford and Ashford to Bedford services (and vice versa) will start and terminate at London Blackfriars
• Catford Loop services no longer part of the Southeastern timetable (as these will have transferred to the new Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise in December)
Long-term service improvements include:
• Highspeed:
o A new high speed ‘rounder’ service improving connections between London and North / East Kent, providing another choice of London terminal
o Highspeed trains will stop at Snodland, Birchington-on-Sea, Martin Mill and Walmer for the first time
o Extra seats on the high speed service (with 698 seats at Ashford in the morning peak and 349 extra seats from Ebbsfleet.)
o Two additional high speed trains from Margate and Broadstairs creating a half hourly service at these stations in the morning peak
o An additional high speed service from Ramsgate via Canterbury to St Pancras
• A reduction of splitting and joining on the mainline and high speed services
Mainline:
• A new hourly direct off-peak service between Maidstone East and Canterbury West
• A new fast service from Hastings to Charing Cross departing at 0804 and a Charing Cross to Hastings service departing at 1620, offering a 90 minute journey time
• A new peak service from Maidstone East to Blackfriars departing at 0845
• A new Blackfriars to Maidstone East service departing at 0719
• New additional services between London Victoria and Dartford at 0640 and then new later services half hourly from 1905 until 2308 (Victoria to Dartford) and from 2039 until 0009 (Victoria to Dartford)
• A new direct through-service between London Victoria and Sheerness-on-Sea (two trains in the morning peak and two trains in the evening peak)
Passengers can check for changes to their services at www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/thameslink/january2015/.
Notes on London Bridge and Thameslink
Other changes at London Bridge: 5 January 2015 to 2018
• No Bedford to Brighton cross-London Thameslink trains call at London Bridge station
• A reduced service runs between Brighton and London Bridge in the off-peak and a very limited service will run in the peak
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 people a year go to London Bridge or through it to Cannon Street and Charing Cross – 56 million start or end their at London Bridge itself
• The new concourse at London Bridge will be the size of 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
• 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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