Passengers in Kent and South East London are reminded to check before they travel this Christmas and plan ahead for next year as Network Rail carries out essential upgrade work: BDUandLondonBridgeEvening

Monday 28 Nov 2016

Passengers in Kent and South East London are reminded to check before they travel this Christmas and plan ahead for next year as Network Rail carries out essential upgrade work

Region & Route:
| Southern

With just under a month to go until Christmas, passengers are reminded to plan ahead and check before they travel this festive period and New Year as Network Rail carries out upgrades in and around London and the South East. Network Rail has also announced major improvement work taking place in August 2017 as it continues to rebuild London Bridge station as part of the Thameslink Programme.

This essential work is part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan to provide more capacity, help to improve reliability and respond to the tremendous growth encountered on Britain’s railways.

This year, work for Network Rail’s orange army of engineers and maintenance teams will begin on the morning of Christmas Eve which falls on a Saturday. With just under four weeks until Christmas, passengers are advised to plan their journeys carefully as there will be various changes to many Southeastern, Thameslink and Southern services over the holiday period, including closures of London terminals.  Information about changes to services over this time can be found at www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/christmas and via National Rail Enquiries www.nationalrail.co.uk.

John Halsall, Network Rail South East route managing director, said: “This Christmas and New Year my teams will be working around the clock to improve the South East’s railway for the hundreds of thousands of passengers that use it every day. By starting work on Christmas Eve, our engineers will have four full days to get the work done when there are fewer passengers travelling.

“The work we are doing is part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan which will help improve the reliability of the network on the South East and keep passengers moving.

I would like to thank passengers for their patience whilst we carry out this essential work and urge people to check before they travel this Christmas.”

 

David Statham, Managing Director of Southeastern Railway, said: “We encourage all of our passengers planning on travelling during the Christmas and New Year period to check before they travel at southeasternrailway.co.uk/Christmas as their journeys may be affected by station closures or an amended timetable. Until the completion of London Bridge station in 2018, work on the programme continues on weekends and bank holidays, including some major work at the end of August 2017. Stay up to date by visiting our website and following us on twitter @SE_Railway.”

At London Bridge, Network Rail continues to rebuild the country’s fourth-busiest station and the surrounding railway as part of the Thameslink Programme. Significant progress has been made since August, when two-thirds of the new concourse opened and rebuilt platforms 7-9 came into use. Platforms 1 – 4 have been demolished to allow the team to build the final part of the street-level concourse. Over Christmas and New Year, the Orange Army will continue rebuilding the platforms and the new concourse beneath, which will open in January 2018.

At the same time, the first track through the new Bermondsey Dive Under – a major new junction on the approaches to London Bridge, similar to a motorway flyover or underpass, which will cut delays and allow more trains to run in future – will be brought into use over the Christmas weekend.

Nearby, at New Cross, Network Rail engineers will be rebuilding another key junction, replacing the points which allow trains to switch from one track to another, installing new track and modernising the power supply which serves the electric trains.

In Kent, a major project to improve the railway through Sevenoaks tunnel, just south of the station, also takes place over the Christmas weekend. This two-mile long tunnel is the longest main line tunnel in the South East – and one of the wettest, which can cause problems for train services. Over four days from the morning of Christmas Eve to the early hours of 28 December, Network Rail engineers will be dig up and replace the drainage system through the tunnel, while also repairing brickwork and the lining of some of the 13 ventilation shafts within the tunnel.

During the quieter Christmas and New Year period, planned works will also take place on public transport and road networks across London. To get around and make the most of the festive season, allow plenty of time for your journey and plan ahead at tfl.gov.uk/festive or nationalrail.co.uk/christmas, or check with your train operator.

August 2017 – major changes to services:

With just over one year to go until the rebuilding of London Bridge and the surrounding railway as part of the Thameslink Programme is complete in January 2018, passengers are being given advanced notice that there will be significant changes to Southeastern services over the August 2017 bank holiday weekend and the week that follows, including a number of working days.

The work being proposed by Network Rail will take place from 26 August to 3 September 2017. It is the penultimate major piece of work at London Bridge and will affect services to Charing Cross, Waterloo East, Cannon Street and London Bridge.

The final phase of work to enable the completed platforms and concourse to open to passengers in January 2018 takes place over the Christmas and New Year period next year, when there will also be major service changes to accommodate the work.

If you are organising next year’s holiday, you might want to keep these dates in mind. Further information will be available soon.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Christmas 2016 changes to services:

Changes to Southeastern services:

Saturday 24 December, Christmas Eve

  • There are no trains at Charing Cross, Waterloo East, St Johns and New Cross
  • Only Hastings trains will be going to and from London Bridge
  • There is a very limited service to and from Cannon Street with only Greenwich Line trains running
  • Trains are diverted to Victoria or Blackfriars and will be busier than usual

Trains will stop running earlier than usual on Christmas Eve so please check before you travel and be aware that last trains will be particularly busy.

Sunday 25 December, Christmas Day

There are no trains running across the network.

Monday 26 December, Boxing Day

High speed trains will be running half-hourly between Gravesend and St Pancras trains between 08:00 and 20:00.

Tuesday 27 December, Bank Holiday

  • There are no trains at Charing Cross, Waterloo East, St Johns and New Cross
  • Only Hasting trains will be going to and from London Bridge
  • There is a very limited service to and from Cannon Street with only Greenwich Line trains running
  • Trains are diverted to Victoria or Blackfriars and will be busier than usual

Changes over 28 - 31st December 2016

Wednesday 28, Thursday 29 and Friday 30 December 2016 there will be a Saturday style service so check times before travelling.

Saturday 31 December, New Year’s Eve

  • Waterloo East station will close at 23:45 and there are no Southeastern trains at Blackfriars on this day
  • There are no trains after 02:45 (early hours of 01 January) from Charing Cross, Waterloo East, Cannon Street, Deptford, Greenwich, Maze Hill and Westcombe Park
  • We will be running extra late trains from Victoria on New Year’s Eve
  • Last train times will be published in December

Changes over 01 - 02 January 2017 

  • Sunday 01 January, New Year’s Day – 02 January 2017, Bank Holiday
  • There are no Southeastern services from Charing Cross, Waterloo East, Cannon Street, Deptford, Greenwich, Maze Hill and Westcombe Park
  • Only Hastings trains to and from London Bridge (via East Croydon)
  • There are some additional/diverted services to/from Victoria or Blackfriars
  • There are also some additional closures elsewhere on the Southeastern network on 1 January. More information will be published soon

Changes to Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express services:

Saturday 24 December, Christmas Eve

  • There is a reduced service operating and trains will stop running earlier than usual

Sunday 25 December, Christmas Day

  • There are no services across the network

Monday 26 December,

  • No Thameslink trains will run. A reduced service will on Gatwick Express and Southern lines.

Tuesday 27 December – Monday 2 January

  • There will be some alterations; please check National Railway Enquiries or the train operating company website.

 

 

 

About Thameslink Programme

The Thameslink Programme is  transforming north-south travel through London. When complete in 2018 it will give passengers:

  • New longer and more 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
  • More robust tracks and state-of-the art signalling and more reliable trains to make journeys more reliable
  • Completely rebuilt stations at Blackfriars and London Bridge

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 - Alexandra Swann
07734 650735
Alexandra.Swann@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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