Victoria railway station engineering work to disrupt travel over Christmas and New Year period

Engineering works on the lines between Victoria, Clapham Junction and Balham railway stations will leave travel across South London disrupted over the whole Christmas and New Year period.

From Christmas Day until January 3, engineers will be removing old, redundant signalling equipment and bringing into use a £160m signalling system.

Preparatory works will also be taking place over the weekends of October 15-16, 29-30, and November 26-27.

When this engineering work is under way, Southern services will not run between East Croydon and Victoria, and Gatwick Express will be suspended.

Passengers are advised to plan ahead and use Southern and Thameslink services to London Bridge and London Blackfriars.

Kristine Harris, Network Rail senior project manager, said: “Over the past two years, we’ve been working around the clock to modernise the signalling system in the Clapham and Balham area.

“This Christmas, our teams will be testing and bringing the new signalling system in to use ahead of commuters returning in January.

“We know there is never a good time to close the railway but by working for ten consecutive days over the holidays when lines are significantly quieter, means we can get the work completed more quickly and reopen the railway lines on time.”

Alongside work to switch on the brand-new signalling equipment, engineers will be changing the track layout at a railway junction at Clapham Junction station.

A two-year project will also progress over the festive period to install 115 new ticket gates at Victoria to improve accessibility for passengers and reduce delays to trains caused by queues and congestion at ticket gates.

Pictured top: Victoria railway station (Picture: Network Rail)