Changes to Southern and Gatwick Express services this Easter while engineering work takes place

Passengers are being urged to check before travelling over Easter as major improvement work on the railway means Southern and Gatwick Express services will be amended over the Easter weekend of 25 – 28 March.

The Network Rail project at Battersea, which replaces a major railway junction, means Southern and Gatwick Express trains will not be able to use London Victoria station. Southern will run a revised service on the rest of the network, but the Gatwick Express service will not run at all.

Travel by train between London, Gatwick Airport and the coast will still be possible, from London Bridge or London Blackfriars using Southern or Thameslink trains.

Work to a bridge over the River Arun means parts of the Horsham line will close for the weekend with rail replacement buses running instead, adding up to 60 minutes to the journey.

Smaller projects are also taking part on some of the days across the network.

A Southern and Gatwick express spokesperson said: “We're putting arrangements in place to keep passengers moving while these essential works are being done, but it will mean some passengers' journey times could be extended, or alternative routes should be used, so please check before you travel.”

A summary of Easter services, rail replacement buses and alternative ticket acceptance on other operators can be found atsouthernrailway.com/easter2016.

Details of journeys and train times are now available at nationalrail.co.uk