Key rail routes to close for 'essential' works

1 day ago

Daniel SextonSouth East

News image — Some routes south of Three Bridges will be closed on Sunday due to engineering works

Getty Images A green and yellow Southern Railway train pulls into Three Bridges Railway Station. It is a sunny day with white, fluffy clouds in the sky. — Some routes south of Three Bridges will be closed on Sunday due to engineering works

Rail passengers travelling in south-east England are being told to check before they travel with fewer trains than usual on Sunday due to engineering works.

No trains will operate between Three Bridges and Brighton, Lewes or Hove all day, with replacement buses planned instead.

Alterations will see Southern and Thameslink services that usually run to Eastbourne and Brighton also replaced by buses.

Southern said it would continue to operate some trains between Brighton and London, which will run via Hove, Horsham and Gatwick Airport.

This will be the fourth consecutive weekend where buses have replaced trains on the Brighton Main Line, but the works on Sunday will be on a different stretch of track.

The next scheduled closure on the route over a weekend will be on 21 and 22 March.

Getty Images Ticket barriers at the railway station in Brighton. — Trains between Brighton and London will run but on a diversionary route

Lucy McAuliffe, Network Rail Sussex route director, said: "The busy Brighton Main Line is among the most complex and congested routes in the country, with the infrastructure being some of the oldest and most intensively used."

She added: "We need to carry out work to try to prevent delays to journeys."

Other works in the South East

Meanwhile, services between Horsham, in West Sussex and Dorking, in Surrey, will be replaced by buses until 16 February after a landslip caused the closure of the route.

Southeastern said most of its trains would be running into London Victoria from Kent on Saturday and Sunday, as other London stations are closed for engineering works.

A limited service will run between London Bridge and Gravesend (via Abbey Wood) and London Bridge and Hastings, with trains running non-stop to Tonbridge via the route through Redhill.

Services between Faversham and Ramsgate will be replaced by buses all weekend.

And South Western Railway said less services than usual will run from Surrey to London Waterloo, and the line between Farnham and Alton wll also be closed for engineering works on Sunday.

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