Network Rail to Surrey passengers: Check before you travel in coming months
Engineering works beginning this weekend will affect those travelling into London Victoria, Clapham and Balham.
Network Rail has issued a warning that passengers travelling to London should plan ahead and check before they travel in the coming months.
This weekend there are likely to be disruptions on both Saturday and Sunday as preparatory work for the installation of a new £160 million signalling system affects a second October weekend.
Services were previously affected on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th of this month as work to replace the 1980s-era cables, gantries and signalling posts started.
Network Rail spokesperson Paul Dent-Jones said the decision to close lines was not an easy one.
“We choose to do the work over weekends because that’s typically when fewer passengers are travelling”.
“I know it’s disruptive, and I’m really sorry when passengers hear about engineering works because it is so frustrating. But rest assured we don’t take the decision to close the railways lightly.”
But he explained that this was a necessary move.
“The new equipment that we’re installing for the re-signalling programme means there’s going to be fewer faults and fewer delays for passengers travelling because we’re replacing kit that was installed in the 1980s.”
The Network Rail spokesperson also said that November 26th and 27th would see services on London Victoria, Balham and Clapham lines impacted, as well as 10 days over the festive period - from Christmas Day until Tuesday January 3rd 2023.
This will be when engineers start bringing into use the state-of-the-art signalling system as it's when fewer people use the rail network.
“There’s never a good time to close the railway. But at Christmas by closing the railway for ten consecutive days over the holidays - when its typically much quieter it means that we can get so much more work finished, and it means that we can do that work much quicker and it means we’re more likely to open the railway on time.”
The Network Rail spokesperson also issued some advice for travellers.
“Just check before you travel, make sure you know what trains are available, what’s running and just don’t get caught out."