VERY major rail engineering works affecting London over the Christmas period

[alison]

Just in case you aren't aware of it, there will be VERY major engineering works taking out much of "Southern Region" between Saturday 23rd December and Tuesday 2nd January:

 

-  No trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, as has become usual.

-  There will be no SouthEastern services to/from Charing Cross, Waterloo East, London Bridge (there will still be a reduced Southern service) and Cannon Street, and stations local to these, over the period, which may affect in particular people aiming for the Coliseum and the Royal Opera House. 

-  There will be no Thameslink services through central London.

-  There don't appear to be any Gatwick Express or High-Speed services to/from St. Pancras International on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day - but double-check, because Victoria appears to be open on Boxing Day.

- For the other dates, a reduced and amended SouthEastern service will be running into Blackfriars, Victoria and Waterloo Mainline (that may have a knock-on effect on South West Trains, or whatever they are called now).  Victoria is expected to be very busy during peak periods (you might need to use it if you're going to BRB's Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall).

 

So, check that you have trains before you travel!

 

This is supposedly the last time we are expected to bite the bullet before the Thameslink Programme is finished.  Everything is supposed to spring into life, shiny and new, on 2nd January, with "all" services to Charing Cross/Waterloo East/London Bridge/Cannon Street restored (which will probably be a bit of a culture shock to many after several years of disruption!).  Experience suggests that you might want to think about alternative arrangements for the first few days in January too, just in case

 

 

http://www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk/2017-disruption

 

 

Here ends the public service announcement   If anyone would like to add information about works affecting the other areas of London, please do so!

 

 

[RuthE]

I spent many years living on the Hayes and Dartford/Bexleyheath lines and am very glad I "got out" before any of this started!

Edited December 5, 2017 by RuthE

[MAB]

Funny isn't it that the powers that be are forever lecturing us to abandon our cars for public transport, then at the time of year when people want to travel, they deprive us of the train service.  I've spent the odd Christmas in Germany, they can provide trains over  the holidays so why not here?

[alison]

Well, okay, the Thameslink Programme has been an exception over the last few years, but even then, it does seem that there are more, and larger-scale, works around this time of year than there used to be.  I mean, I remember trains running on Boxing Day, at least, as fairly standard.

 

 

Oh, and that reminds me that I have no idea what London Overground are doing.  I hope at least the Underground will be running a decent service.

[Lizbie1]

And there are no trains at all to or from Paddington between 24 and 27 December (inclusive) after which the service will be much reduced until the New Year.

 

https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/christmas2017

Edited December 5, 2017 by Lizbie1
link added

[Nicola H]

36 minutes ago, MAB said:

Funny isn't it that the powers that be are forever lecturing us to abandon our cars for public transport, then at the time of year when people want to travel, they deprive us of the train service.  I've spent the odd Christmas in Germany, they can provide trains over  the holidays so why not here?

You can thank the   infrastucture  renewal program  begun  by  one  Mr Harris 70 some years ago for the state or otherwise of the  German railways ... 

[Lizbie1]

I read fairly recently that a lot of the German rail network was reaching the end of its useful life but the money for refurbishment had not yet been forthcoming. Who knows, they might be in our position in 10 or 20 years' time.

 

I'd agree that the scale and length of engineering work has increased hugely in recent years (try living in the provinces if you want to know all about it!) but that can in part be blamed on the extremely low appetite for risk among the general public where rail travel is concerned. The high-profile accidents of the last 20 years, though relatively few in number, unlocked a lot of cash for no doubt necessary refurbishment, at the same time as upgrades and improvements have been necessitated by a huge increase in the number of people travelling by train - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Great_Britain#/media/File:GBR_rail_passengers_by_year_1830-2015.png if you don't believe me.  (Whether these works are carried out in the most efficient way is another story.)

 

It seems obvious to me that Christmas (as well as Easter and the Summer holiday season, not to mention weekends and late night services) gets hit in this country as engineering works are planned around people's need to get to work in reasonable time.

[MAB]

2 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

I'd agree that the scale and length of engineering work has increased hugely in recent years (try living in the provinces if you want to know all about it!) but that can in part be blamed on the extremely low appetite for risk among the general public where rail travel is concerned. The high-profile accidents of the last 20 years, though relatively few in number, unlocked a lot of cash for no doubt necessary refurbishment, at the same time as upgrades and improvements have been necessitated by a huge increase in the number of people travelling by train - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Great_Britain#/media/File:GBR_rail_passengers_by_year_1830-2015.png if you don't believe me.  (Whether these works are carried out in the most efficient way is another story.)

 

 

Living very close to a major line I'm aware that since privatization commercial rail traffic has greatly increased.  At the outset there were even more heavy goods trains than now, but this resulted in embankments collapsing so there is a bit less now.   Along my line platforms have been extended to take longer trains to accommodate the increased number of passengers, so I imagine the strain this puts on the tracks necessitates more maintenance work.  Locally it is almost always new track laying.