Southern services to be introduced at Victoria

Southern services at London Victoria, Battersea Park, Clapham Junction and Wandsworth Common stations will be introduced from Monday 10 January 2022.

The trains to and from London Victoria are additional to the current reduced timetable, which was put in place to facilitate engineering works over the Christmas period and then extended by four days due to the impact of Covid on staff.

The Victoria trains from Monday provide eight direct Southern services an hour to London Victoria and connections to existing services at East Croydon, Streatham Common, Balham, Mitcham Junction, Sutton and Epsom.

As more crew return to work, Southern are planning a larger service that will introduce more direct services to and from London Victoria. There are far fewer people travelling due to Omicron and the work-from-home directive.

Govia Thameslink Railway Interim Chief Operating Officer Angie Doll said: “From Monday, we will begin to run a service to and from Victoria again. Due to the continued significant challenges we face with Covid affecting many of our colleagues, there will be fewer trains than normal. Although we have far fewer people travelling with us at the moment due to the work-from-home directive, passengers may have to change trains to reach their destination. We’re really sorry if this affects your journey.

“We know from listening to our customers that they want a reliable service, not lots of last-minute cancellations or big gaps between trains. Providing a reliable service for our customers has always been at the heart of our decision making. We are using customer and stakeholder feedback to protect and add as many trains for those who can't work from home and schools as possible.

“We remain fully focused on running a reliable service. As before, we’d strongly urge people to check before they travel for the latest information and to leave extra time.”

To help customers continue their journeys, there are alternative routes into central London, including Southern services being diverted into London Bridge and Thameslink services to Blackfriars. Ticket acceptance is in place across other transport operators including Tube, bus and other train operators. Alternative route maps can be found on Southern’s website.

People who do need to travel by rail can do so confidently, knowing that Southern’s trains with air conditioning refresh the air on board every 6-9 minutes and are treated every day with a viricide which kills coronavirus for weeks at a time. Southern also has tools to help people find a quieter train.

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Notes to editors

Timetables will be made available shortly at www.southernrailway.com. Online journey planners such as www.nationalrail.co.uk will be updated by the end of the week.

From Monday 10 January 2022, London Victoria will be served by eight Southern trains per hour. These services will be run at maximum length for available platforms and are designed to provide connections to other services across the network and are set up as follows:

1. Four trains per hour in each direction – London Victoria to East Croydon – calling at London Victoria, Clapham Junction, Streatham Common and East Croydon.
2. Two trains per hour in each direction – London Victoria to South Croydon– calling at London Victoria, Battersea Park, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Common, Balham, Streatham Common, Norbury, Thornton Heath, Selhurst, East Croydon and South Croydon.
3. Two trains per hour in each direction – London Victoria to Epsom – calling at London Victoria, Battersea Park, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Common, Balham, Mitcham Eastfields, Mitcham Junction, Hackbridge, Carshalton, Sutton, Cheam, Ewell East and Epsom

More services will be introduced in subsequent weeks as crew availability improves. The extra trains will provide connections with existing services. For example:

1. The four trains per hour service between London Victoria to East Croydon will connect longer distance customers to stations such as Clapham Junction and London Victoria by changing trains at East Croydon. It will also connect with the existing Sutton to Balham via Norbury service at Streatham Common.
2. The two trains per hour service between London Victoria and South Croydon will provide additional journey options to and from South Croydon. In addition, it will connect at Balham to provide journey options for customers on the current Sutton to Balham via Crystal Palace route such as at Gipsy Hill and West Norwood.
3. The two trains per hour service between London Victoria and Epsom will provide connections to Thameslink at Mitcham Junction and Sutton, as well as additional journey options between Mitcham Junction and London Victoria.