Rail Passengers in South London will see start of upgrades this weekend

Trains between East Croydon and London Victoria will not run this weekend – 27th and 28th November and also from Saturday 25th December to Monday 3rd January 2022 as rail upgrades take place. Most Southern trains are being redirected to London Bridge.

The closures will allow Network Rail to carry on their Victoria re-signalling project. This is an extensive programme of work in upgrading signalling and track at key junctions on routes into London Victoria which will provide increased reliability.

Pouparts Junction, near Clapham over the Christmas closure, will have a complete overhaul with new ballast and track, along with new signalling equipment in new signal gantries, cables and power supply points along the Balham to London Victoria lines. For more information on the Victoria re-signalling project, visit networkrail.co.uk/VictoriaResignalling .

Passengers can enjoy the benefits of the new upgrades sooner by the work being done in ‘blockades’, which is the term used for the week long closures.

February next year will see Copyhold junction (near Haywards Heath) rebuilt with new points, and track, along with new track at Burgess Hill.

The works will take place from Saturday 19th to Sunday 27th February 2022. The line between Three Bridges, Brighton and Lewes will be closed for these 9 days, with bus replacement services running. The weekends before and after seeing additional work taking place.

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The works will see 7,000 tonnes of ballast, 1,000 metres of track and eight sets of points replaced. For more information on this closure, visit networkrail.co.uk/BrightonLine2022 .

Katie Frost, Sussex route Director, Network Rail, said:
“Putting passengers first is at the heart of what we do, and that works across everything, including how we plan and deliver work. Blockades are a massive opportunity for us to deliver more efficiently, reduce overall disruption to services and ultimately do more work to improve journeys for our passengers.

“But we won’t forget that that the success of previous extended line closures was in no small part due to our strong focus on passenger and stakeholder management, and our close partnership with train operator colleagues.”

“That’s why we’ll work closely with local stakeholders and train operators to ensure people who live by the railway, passengers and businesses are fully aware of the impact on their journeys and the alternative travel options available to them. “

Chris Fowler, Customer Services Director for Southern, said:
“These engineering programmes are essential to give our customers the reliable, on-time services they rightly expect. We’re working closely with Network Rail and other transport partners to ensure our customers can get where they need to be when services are affected. Some journeys will take considerably longer than normal, so please check routes and times in advance.”