Stunning timelapse film shows scale of work at London Bridge railway station

Tuesday 30 Dec 2014

Stunning timelapse film shows scale of work at London Bridge railway station

Region & Route:: | Southern

More than 1,000 engineers have been working round the clock at London Bridge railway station every day since December 20, including Christmas Day, on a massive project to rebuild the station to improve facilities and services for passengers.

This timelapse photography shows just some of the work that has been going on there as part of the Government-backed £6.5bn Thameslink Programme.

New track and power supplies have been installed while signal engineers have been commissioning a new signalling system to incorporate the two new platforms and the re-modelled approaches to the station.

Some Thameslink Programme work at other sites on the network has already been completed, allowing some services to resume. This included new signalling installed on the New Cross Gate to Sydenham corridor and also in South London near Bermondsey allowing resumption of planned Southern and London Overground passenger services. Work to replace tracks at the entrance to the Hornsey Depot in North London was also completed.

Thameslink Major Programme Director Simon Blanchflower said: “It’s been busy couple of weeks at London Bridge as we continue with our plans to improve travel through the station for passengers. We’re creating a concourse the size of the pitch at Wembley under the tracks, but in order to get to that stage – in 2018 – there’s a great deal of work to be done above ground first, with the new platforms for Southern passengers a sign of things to come.

“I would like to thank passengers for bearing with us as we do the work.”

There have been no Southern or Thameslink services at London Bridge station since December 20 and these will resume, with a revised timetable for 2015, on January 5.

There will be further changes on January 12, when platforms 4, 5 and 6 are taken out of use for rebuilding and we begin a 20-month period where Southeastern’s Charing Cross trains run through the station without stopping.

Notes to editors

Details of service changes

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
During this time, National Rail tickets to and from London terminals issued by Southeastern, Thameslink, Southern and South West Trains will be accepted at selected Underground stations in South London without extra charge.

5 January 2015 to 2018

No Bedford to Brighton cross-London Thameslink trains will call at London Bridge station, although they will continue to run on an alternate route.
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 calling 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

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 – 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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