Starting next Friday (3rd May) there will be a number of planned upgrades and routine maintenance to the railway across South London, Kent and Sussex, which will continue over the Early May Bank Holiday weekend.
Network Rail will carry out preparatory work in relation to the Victoria resignalling progamme on routes between Farringdon and Loughborough Junction, Blackfriars and Herne Hill and Battersea Pier and Factory Junction. The work includes installation of new signalling equipment and testing, and is part of a major package of upgrades to modernise 1980s track and signalling on the South London lines into London Victoria.
Lucy McAuliffe, Network Rail’s Sussex route director, said:
“Over the Early May Bank Holiday weekend our engineers will be working hard across a number of work sites to complete a range of important maintenance and upgrades to keep the railway running safely and reliably."
“There is never a good time to close part of the railway but the long weekend allows us to complete a large amount of work simultaneously which is less disruptive to our rail customers.”
There will be track refurbishment taking place on Sunday 5th May between Sole Street / Strood and Rainham, with engineers carrying out track maintenance, vegetation clearance, structure examination and drainage works.
On the same day there will be vegetation clearance, rail and structure inspections and routine track maintenance in Balham and also between Barnham and Havant junction, which will run into the early hours of Monday 6th May.
At West Sutton, there are emergency earthworks to repair a landslip next to the line, where a resident’s land is slipping and presents a risk to the railway. Engineers have been working to stabilise the embankment by installing piling over weekends in April and they will be continuing the works over the Early May Bank Holiday to stabilise the embankment.
On the lines between Redhill / Tonbridge / Sevenoaks / Paddock Wood, teams will be working from early Sunday morning until early Monday morning to carry out embankment works and electrification works in various locations, most of which are in preparation for main works later in the year.
Image credit: Network Rail
