Delays between Gatwick Airport and Purley expected until the end of the day 

Route(s) affected

Gatwick Express between Brighton and London Victoria

Southern between Portsmouth Harbour / Bognor Regis / Eatbourne / Littlehampton / Ore and London Victoria, and also between Gatwick Airport and Redhill

Thameslink between Brighton / Three Bridges / Gatwick Airport and Bedford, between Brighton and Cambridge, between Horsham and London Bridge / Peterborough, and also between Three Bridges and Luton

Description

A speed restriction over a defective track at Earlswood means that the line towards East Croydon is disrupted. Southern / Thameslink trains running between Gatwick Airport and East Croydon may be delayed by up to 30 minutes.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day

Customer Advice

Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express services between Gatwick Airport and Purley may experience delays between 5 and 10 minutes. This is to allow for trains to divert onto alternative lines.

You can continue to use your usual route, but your journey will be extended by up to 10 minutes, so please allow extra time to complete your journey.

Planning your journey:

Live departure boards can be found here.

You can view a live map of the network here.

Can you tell me more about the incident?

Following earlier reports of a possible issue with the track in the affected area, Network Rail have had to put a speed restriction in place.

Your journey may be delayed by this, and in some cases, there may be some service changes, as this means the network has lower capacity, because trains take longer to travel along each section of track.

Staff are working with track engineers to ensure repairs are planned and completed as quickly as possible. Often, if these works involve the route being closed or a need for complex machinery, they'll need to happen overnight or during a weekend closure. Speed restrictions help prevent any further track damage until this is done.

Check before you travel:

You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.

Compensation:

You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.