West London train passengers are being warned of disruption over the August bank holiday weekend as Network Rail continues its work to improve railway services.
The line out of Waterloo will be affected as Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan builds up a head of steam over the weekend from August 27-29.
A series of track and station upgrades are set to take place between London Waterloo and Barnes, which will affect Hounslow and Brentford.
The bank holiday has been chosen to carry out the work as, on average, less than half the usual 4.5 million people per day use the railway.
The upgrades are hoped to improve the reliability and resilience of the heavily-used network.
Samantha McCarthy, finance director responsible for Network Rail’s Wessex route, warned passengers to plan their bank holiday journeys in advance due to the expected disruption, but said hundreds of thousands of people would benefit from the work.
"Waterloo is Britain’s busiest station with nearly 100 million journeys each year, and the lines that serve Waterloo are some of the most densely used in the country," she said.
"While the work will cause some temporary inconvenience, we have timed our upgrades to minimise disruption as much as possible and people using the lines into Waterloo will ultimately benefit from a more resilient and more reliable railway.
“The majority of the railway will be open, but passengers should check before they travel to avoid any problems getting to their destinations.”
What improvements are taking place?
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Network Rail is delivering an upgrade of the points, the equipment which allows trains to move between tracks, at Waterloo station
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It is installing signal and communications equipment between Queenstown Road and Clapham Junction station as part of an £800m investment
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Renewing tracks between Wandsworth Town and Putney station
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Renewing the surface on Platforms 2 and 3 at Wandsworth Town station
Overview of disruption
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Part of London Waterloo station will also be closed and trains might not leave from their usual platforms - please check displays at station
All South West Trains services will use platforms 5-8 at Vauxhall and 7-11 at Clapham Junction.
Queenstown Road station will have no service and passengers should use other stations nearby.
Fewer trains than normal will be running between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction, and no trains will operate between Clapham Junction and Barnes.
How will it affect west London?
Saturday and bank holiday Monday
- Trains between London Waterloo and Reading will be diverted between Clapham Junction and Twickenham (via Kingston)
- Trains between London Waterloo and Windsor will be diverted between Clapham Junction and Twickenham (via Wimbledon and Kingston).
- Trains to and from Weybridge via Hounslow and Staines will start from / terminate at Barnes
- A shuttle bus service will run between Clapham Junction and Barnes.
- A revised train service will run between Barnes and Kingston via Twickenham, connecting with the altered Reading and Windsor services.
- The circular train service to and from London Waterloo via Brentford and via Twickenham will not run. Passengers should use the altered train services and replacement buses.
- Trains between Ascot and Guildford will be retimed.
Sunday service
- Trains between London Waterloo and Reading will be diverted between Clapham Junction and Twickenham, calling at Wimbledon and Kingston.
- An hourly train service will run between London Waterloo and Windsor and will be diverted between Clapham Junction and Twickenham, calling at all stations via Wimbledon and Kingston.
- An hourly stopping train service will run between Barnes and Windsor via Richmond and Twickenham.
- An hourly train service will run between Barnes and Kingston, calling at all stations via Twickenham.
- A special train service will run to provide a circular service to and from Barnes via Twickenham and via Brentford. This service will run throughout the day.
- Trains to and from Woking via Hounslow and Staines will start from / terminate at Barnes rather than London Waterloo.
- A shuttle bus service for local journeys will run between Clapham Junction and Barnes.
Bank holiday Monday
- South West Trains will run the Saturday timetable on the Holiday Monday except as altered for engineering work shown above. Some other services, mostly early morning trains, may also be altered to fit in with other operators' services and you should check your train times before travelling.
