£8m railway upgrade for South East London and Kent over Christmas period

The huge upgrade to the railway in South East London will be carried out in the Lewisham area and will be taking place over the Christmas and New Year period

The essential improvements will bring passengers more reliable services on this extremely congested area of the network, and will see changes to services put in place from Monday the 27th of December to Monday the 3rd of January 2022 in the Lewisham area.

Trains on the Hayes line will be replaced with buses during the closure and partial closures on the Grove Park line from Orpington and also along the Sidcup line from Dartford will also see bus replacement services in operation.

Regular operations will return with normal operational capacity on Tuesday the 4th of January 2022.

Passengers in South East London and Kent wishing to travel by train during this time are advised to check before making plans, especially if their journey is via Lewisham station.

Further information about the festive period closures including some in Kent, can be found on the Southeastern website:

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https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/christmastravel

During the planned closures and the usual closures of Christmas Day and Boxing day, Network Rail engineers will upgrade switches and crossings on the St.Johns/Lewisham route to Grove Park and along the Sidcup line.

Other locations across the Southeastern route will also see work carried out such as wheel-timber renewals on bridges between London Bridge Station and Cannon street and also the strengthening of the railway cutting at Ramswood in Swanley which will also be carried out to prevent landslips.

Not all works being carried out during the festive period will complete and will mean that Network Rail will be carrying out further work during the weekends of the 8th and 9th of January and also the 5th and 6th of February 2022.

For further information about Network Rail’s work in the Lewisham area visit their project page:

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/kent/kent-and-south-east-london-railway-upgrade-plan/lewisham-railway-upgrades

Network Rail’s Kent Route Director, Fiona Taylor, said:

“I’d urge passengers to check before they travel and allow extra time for their journeys on those routes affected and thank them for their patience while we carry out this vital upgrade work.”

Southeastern Train Services Director, Scott Brightwell, said:

“Our key focus is winning back those passengers that stopped travelling by train during Covid and I hope the timetable changes over the festive period don’t cause too much inconvenience.

“This essential work does help to improve the reliability of our service and when we can’t run trains a replacement bus will be operating.”