alison Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 I've just found out that because of extended engineering work on Southeastern from Christmas Eve up to and including January 3rd there will be no rail services into Cannon Street, Waterloo East and Charing Cross, plus no Southeastern services to London Bridge. You might want to bear this in mind if any of these are your usual way of getting to the Coliseum and/or Royal Opera House (and also South Bank and so on ...) I also assume, from last year's experience, that travel will probably be totally hell on January 4th as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hfbrew Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 And am I right in thinking that this has only been announced in the past few weeks? I checked travel arrangements weeks ago and all seemed fine then but I've been accused of not checking at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 There are engineering works on the Brighton Mainline too, same dates, I've stopped travelling to London over the Christmas period now, I booked Nutcracker for the 5th January so that should be okay! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted November 3, 2015 Author Share Posted November 3, 2015 And am I right in thinking that this has only been announced in the past few weeks? That I couldn't say. I can't remember where I saw the poster now, but then I don't go into the related stations very often. OTOH, I suppose it was obvious, given the works at London Bridge, that they would take the opportunity to do extended work when they had the chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 Likewise West Coast Mainline is affected check with rail companies for details..Virgin Trains have announced lots of rail engineering works over the Christmas period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 Advance warning: Christmas Nuff said.... 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hfbrew Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 Advance warning: Christmas Nuff said.... Quite, which is why I checked for engineering works weeks ago and either missed the vital information or it wasn't there then! Last year had no problems at Christmas. Maybe I should hire a donkey now... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 An advance warning for New Year's Eve: "From around 14:00, Waterloo, Westminster and Jubilee Bridges, and roads in central London will start to close to prepare for the ticketed fireworks event. Buses will gradually be withdrawn. All bridge and road closures will be in place from 20:00 and most will re-open at 06:00 on Friday 1 January, or when it is safe to do so. " So anyone going to performances, say, in the Covent Garden area might have some difficulty in getting south of the river afterwards - and bear in mind no trains from Cannon Street and Charing Cross. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 The Brighton mainline is variously affected on different days as they are working on the bit between Croydon and Redhill. Some. Days it's a two hour hike and others just an hour and a half with a change at East Croydon. Mind you the service is awful at the moment anyway since they changed all the timetables this week. Not enough drivers and not enough rolling stock among excuses given. Some poor people had to stand all the way to Brighton on Wednesday and the train was 35 mins late so nearly missed my last bus!! I'm furious it's all such a con! There are two more trains an hour into Victoria but this is the Gatwick"Express" which is £7 more than Southern trains and still takes an hour!! The other trains which used to be 55 mins and stopping only at East Croydon and Clapham now stop at two additional stops so they take an hour too! When I first moved to Brighton this service took 50 mins!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 I had such an awful journey home on 27th November (train packed, people standing everywhere, an emergency stop would have sent them over like dominoes, a complete disgrace) that I'm not sure if I can face travelling next week, especially after seeing the new timetables, I was hoping that I could travel on the new Gatwick Express from Brighton to Victoria with my Travelcard but can't get any sensible information online, the last one leaves Victoria at 10.30pm anyway. The only good news for me is that they have re-instated a train that leaves Brighton at 00.04 and goes down the West Coastway, as it did years ago before the vandals made it unsafe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 There's a note under the Gatwick Express train on the board at Brighton Station which says that only people with tickets valid on all services may use this train! So not sure what your travel card conditions are. Certainly didn't work with my senior rail pass It was £11 75 day return on southern and £18-50 on the Gatwick Express!! And that's with my card. I'm not sure who will use this train in the end as there are quite a few other trains which stop at Gatwick from Brighton (it seems to be one of the new stops on the original faster southern train) and the thameslink all stop there. Who is going to want to travel up to Victoria from Brighton on this Gatwick express ....with that price difference ....and not a quicker service anyway!! I'd rather they put on more southern trains to cope with the overcrowding at the moment. It may be occasionally useful for someone just wanting to go to Gatwick and is late to catch a plane but I would still travel on the normal service to Gatwick myself to save money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 Yes, I've been checking the times again, and Gatwick Airport has been added to almost all the Southern trains, so what use is this train that runs twice a hour and no one can use without paying extra? unless it takes the long suffering commuters who have yearly passes. Hope this is another mistake (like that stupid ticket office system at Brighton that has now been abolished) that will be put right soon. I think I would be willing to pay an extra small fee (like the old Brighton Belle) if there was a really fast non-stop service 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackdove Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 Obviously this is part of the improved service we pay fare increases for every year! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie 2 Milner Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 No trains to Tunbridge Wells after 9pm Mondays and Tuesdays at the moment....not ballet but I now have a midnight drive to pick husband and son up from Tonbridge. ( Been to watch The Gunners). I like some of you just decided not to book things in London. With the London Bridge work the Tun Wells line has major disruption and late at night it is not good. Thank goodness for the live screening..was nice to enjoy Nutcracker and walk home. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 And this is part of why I live in London... every time I do a feasibility exercise to see whether living elsewhere would get me a better quality of life, it comes down to the fact that I have absolutely no wish to return to train commuting (and that the increase I'd incur in commuting costs would wipe out the benefit of having a smaller mortgage, so I probably couldn't afford a bigger flat than I live in anyway...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted December 21, 2015 Author Share Posted December 21, 2015 I think I would be willing to pay an extra small fee (like the old Brighton Belle) if there was a really fast non-stop service Ah, but what about an extra, big fee? (See the difference between travelling between ... oh ... Faversham and Kings Cross on the HST rather than Faversham to Victoria - which I believe is now 15 minutes longer than when I used to do the journey in the 80s. The surcharge is not small, by any stretch of the imagination) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now