Rail passengers advised not to travel between Peterborough or Cambridge and London this weekend

Thameslink and Great Northern have issued the following press release further to information issued by Network Rail this morning.

• Passengers advised not to travel as East Coast Main Line is closed between Peterborough and London this weekend, Saturday, 25 and Sunday, 26 January, for major infrastructure upgrade
• Thameslink services between Brighton / Horsham and Cambridge / Peterborough will run between Brighton / Horsham and London Bridge only
• Great Northern trains will run between Hitchin and Kings Lynn only

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and Network Rail are reminding passengers that this weekend, Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 January, there will be no Thameslink services between Peterborough or Cambridge and London, and no Great Northern services between Hitchin and London, as work continues on the East Coast Upgrade.

The latest stage of this £1.2 billion investment into the route will see Network Rail engineers move part of the signalling control system to a specialist centre in York, which will help to create a more resilient railway. To allow this work to take place safely, no trains will be able to run on the southern portion of the route.

Passengers are urged not to travel on these routes. There will be no trains at all in or out of King’s Cross or Moorgate stations, and no Thameslink services between Peterborough or Cambridge and St Pancras station.

Great Northern trains will still be running between King’s Lynn, Cambridge and Hitchin. Thameslink services will run between Bedford and Brighton via St Pancras as normal, but Brighton/Horsham to Cambridge/Peterborough services will run only between Brighton/Horsham and London Bridge. Greater Anglia will run an amended service between Cambridge and Liverpool Street, which is likely to be busier than normal.

If passengers absolutely must travel, they should allow significantly more time and they will need to use other rail routes, replacement bus services, or a combination of these, all of which will be extremely busy. Plan ahead via National Rail Enquiries or via eastcoastupgrade.co.uk.

Limited replacement bus services will run between:

• Peterborough and Hitchin (calling at all stations)
• Hitchin and Potters Bar (calling at all stations)
• Stevenage and Enfield Chase (calling at all stations)
• Potters Bar and Oakwood (via Hadley Wood and Cockfosters)
• Hatfield and St Albans
• Hitchin and Luton Airport Parkway (via Stevenage)
• St Neots and Bedford

Details are set out on the Great Northern and Thameslink websites at https://www.greatnorthernrail.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/planned-engineering-work and https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/planned-engineering-work.

Ed Akers, Principal Programme Sponsor for Network Rail, said: “This weekend, we are continuing with vital work on the £1.2billion East Coast Upgrade, which is the biggest investment into the line in a generation. We are urging passengers to heed the advice not to travel to or from London on the East Coast Main Line this weekend. We know that this is disruptive and we do apologise for this. Unfortunately, it is necessary to enable us to progress on this work, which will improve reliability for passengers.”

GTR’s Director of Infrastructure Keith Jipps said: “We appreciate our passengers’ patience during this really important work that Network Rail is doing to meet rail service needs for years to come. Passengers should avoid travelling between Peterborough or Cambridge and London this weekend when there will be no Thameslink services between Peterborough or Cambridge and Kings Cross or St Pancras, and no Great Northern services between Hitchin and King’s Cross or Moorgate.”

Ends

Note to editors

As the upgrade programme continues, there are various changes to services on weekends throughout January and February, and this week Network Rail has announced provisional further dates later in 2020 and into 2021 when train services will be affected. Further details are provided on the programme’s website https://eastcoastupgrade.co.uk/.