To do with the rebuilding of London Bridge station. More details here:
http://www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk/about. At least we've got plenty of notice.
23 - 31 August 2014
No Southern services will call at London Bridge. Some Thameslink route services will be retimed and some Southeastern services may be altered. This includes four working days after the late August bank holiday.
20 December 2014 to 4 January 2015
No Southern or Thameslink route services will call at London Bridge for 16 days. This includes three working days before and after Christmas.
Can everyone cramming onto the Overground on those days please have a shower and brush their teeth, it's going to get a bit intimate!
oooooooooooh that will be even more crowded than now on the overground - and we are stuffed in like sardines now!!!!
people think I am odd because I always brush my teeth before I leave the office
Will there be more Overground trains to compensate for the loss of the mainline trains?
I'm dreading this, cos the overground is a nightmare crush already!
You can talk to us about these service changes and ask us any questions 7am – 7pm at:
London Bridge station (opposite platforms 12 - 13) - Monday 2 September – Sunday 8 September
There will be 25% extra capacity on Overground after December 2014, which will be a small help. Obviously complete closures in August and December are deliberately timed to be in the quietest times on the system (although trains were still busy last week).
We are probably the luckiest group of Southern train customers as we have the Overground, others are no so lucky and will be more seriously disrupted.
As a HOP person, I shall consider Crofton Park to Blackfriars for the weekday commute - as an alternative to HOP/Lon Bridge (certainly for August). A bit of a longer journey, but more comfortable.
Will trains from Catford Bridge still go through London Bridge to Charing Cross?
I went along this morning to ask a few questions. They were not able to answer most of them. The information they have on the leaflets is all they know or are prepared to commit to at this time, particularly for the 2015-2016 period.
Here are some of the answers I managed to get:
Q. Will I be able to use my season ticket on Overground and Jubilee line to get to Waterloo?
A. We should have an answer in December 2013. The train operators still have to work out the details.
Q. When there are no southern services to London Bridge, will trains from outside London run to New Cross Gate?
A. Yes. They have turnaround capabilities at NXG and South Bermondsey.
Q. When trains to Forest Hill are cancelled why can't the trains fast to Norwood Junction stop at New Cross Gate, to allow for interchange to Overground?
A. Tight timetable ... needs of the many ... want people off the concourse so makes sense ... will pass on feedback to their control centre for consideration.
Did they have any detail about what the station will be like? The model's got very little detail and the leaflets next to nothing. I want to know what the interiour will be like.
One thing i know is that it will be a double-decker station like New York's Grand Central station!
I don't know whether through trains will be high or low.
Only if you find it reminiscent of Grand Central now!
My understanding is that the undercroft is to brought into use so that part of the concourse is below the expanded through upper level. The lower level terminus will be smaller so I don't think there will be any overlap.
The sad thing is that the beautiful old LBSC train shed is gone. This part was the oldest terminus in London. The only structure like this left now is in Brighton.
BBC News website says that part of the trainshed will be used in a new narrow gauge museum in Aberytswyth - so not all is lost.
I am glad of that. I was sad to see it go.
I went to see the people standing by the model although he couldn't tell me a great deal. A lot of it is still to be decided by the DfT. He did promise there would be regular rush hour trains between LB and City Thameslink which would be great. Not much detail on where they expect people to move to when we lose the CX trains stopping at LB.
I'd got the impression Thameslink was more about increasing trains from outside London, but he did say there would be more for people in the London Zones, just they didn't know the details yet - waiting on the DfT again.
Sorry - stupid question, probably, but when they say on the website "2015/16 - Charing Cross services will not stop at London Bridge" and "2016/17 - Cannon Street services will not stop at London Bridge", they do mean that those are
temporary (but long) suspensions of service to Charing X and Cannon Street - not a complete cessation of service - yeah?
