Disruption between London Bridge and London Blackfriars expected until 12:00 

Route(s) affected

Between Rainham and Luton / Bedford: and between Horsham and Peterborough: and between Brighton and Cambridge / Bedford: and between Sevenoaks and Finsbury Park / Welwyn Garden City: and between Three Bridges and Flitwick / Peterborough / Bedford: and between East Grinstead / Haywards Heath and Bedford: and between Sutton and St Albans City: and between Orpington and Luton

Description

A fault with the signalling system between London Bridge and London Blackfriars is causing disruption to journeys between these stations. Trains may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised.

Disruption is expected until 12:00.

Customer advice

A signalling fault is disrupting northbound trains from London Bridge towards London Blackfriars.

Some trains have been delayed by around 15-25 minutes in this area, and there will now be some service changes to reduce congestion.

From now on, we are expecting some delays may vary - and in some cases they will be less severe.

However, if your train has already travelled through this area, it may still be significantly affected for the rest of its journey.

You may want to now consider using another route for some journeys.

Service changes:

Trains may be diverted from East Croydon towards London Blackfriars. This will mainly affect trains on the route between Three Bridges / Gatwick Airport and Bedford via Redhill.

The diversion route takes around 20 minutes longer than usual, and if trains are diverted this way, they can't call at Norwood Junction or London Bridge.

Some late-running trains may be revised. This means they may not stop at all of the usual stations. As a result, you may need to change trains to get to your destination.

Also, we may need to close some lines between London Bridge and London Blackfriars later this morning. This will allow response teams to attend to the fault. This could lead to some trains diverting onto other routes.

Thameslink will be keeping their departure boards and station announcements up to date, so please keep an eye on the latest information when you're travelling.

Alternative journey options:

Although your normal route will be open, you may find it quicker to use a different option for some journeys.

Journeys to the south of London:

If you are travelling from Brighton, Horsham or East Grinstead (via East Croydon), you may wish to use alternative trains to London Victoria or London Bridge.

You may use Thameslink tickets at no extra cost on Southern and Gatwick Express services on any reasonable route. You can also use London Underground services to transfer across the London area.

If you are travelling on the route from Rainham (via Dartford and Greenwich), you may wish to use Southeastern services to London Bridge or London Victoria instead.

Journeys across London:

You may wish to consider using London Underground or London Buses services, which will accept your ticket at no extra cost across London.

Journeys north of London:

For some of Thameslink's major destinations, you can use other train operators.

You may wish to use:

• LNER between London Kings Cross, Stevenage and Peterborough

• East Midlands Railway between London St Pancras International, Luton Airport Parkway, Luton and Bedford

• Greater Anglia between London Liverpool Street and Cambridge

• You can also use Great Northern services to / from London Kings Cross or Moorgate.

For local journeys around North London, London Buses will accept tickets between Central London and either Elstree & Borehamwood or Finsbury Park.

Planning your journey:

Live departure boards can be found here.

You can view a live map of the network here.

You can also see an alternative route guide here.

If you're travelling in the London area, you can plan journeys on alternative routes by using the TfL Journey Planner here.

Can you tell me more about the incident?

A track circuit failure is disrupting trains which travel from London Bridge towards London Blackfriars.

This part of the network uses track circuits to detect the position of trains. These are electrical systems which monitor whether a train is on a section of track. They operate as part of the signalling system, which is designed to be "fail safe".

When a track circuit fails, the signalling system will interpret this as a train remaining in place, even though there may not be a train present at all, or the previous service may have long since left the area.

As a result, further trains cannot be automatically allowed onto the relevant section of track. Train drivers will be stopped by red signals on approach. They will then get verbal permission from the signaller so that they can proceed, and will run at a heavily-reduced speed as far as the next signal. This is so that the drivers will stop safely if they see anything ahead of them, but it does lead to delays.

Track circuit faults can be caused by a number of different issues, including electronic faults or obstructions on the track. Network Rail manage the signalling system, including track circuits, and their staff will be investigating as quickly as possible.

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.