London Bridge set for five years of disruption as Network Rail say massive redevelopment needed

Rail bosses today warned of years of daily disruption for commuters as they set out the timetable for the £700m rebuilding of London Bridge station.

Network Rail said that work on London Bridge will be the biggest station redevelopment in the capital in a generation and will run from May next year until 2018.

The five-year project will create a new concourse the size of the pitch at Wembley; three more through platforms and boost passenger capacity from 50million to 75million per year.

Rail bosses aim to keep the station open throughout by staggering the platform closures.

Southern rail services from Brighton will be the first line affected as their three dedicated platforms are shut for a year for lengthening work and over that period they will be forced to share station capacity with other services.

Other details of how the works will affect passengers are:

*December 2014 Thameslink route services to and from central London are diverted away from London Bridge via Herne Hill until 2018 but plans are being discussed to maintain an off-peak service to the station from Brighton.

*2015 Charing Cross services are unable to call at London Bridge due to the start of redevelopment work on platforms 4, 5 & 6. All terminating platforms (9-15) are complete.

*2016 Platforms 4,5,6,7 & 8 are complete at London Bridge and Charing Cross services are able to resume calling at the station. Cannon Street services are unable to call at London Bridge due to the start of redevelopment work on platforms 1,2 & 3.The new street level concourse opens at London Bridge providing direct access to St Thomas’ Street.

*End 2017 Platforms 1, 2 & 3 are complete at London Bridge. Bringing these into use enables Cannon Street services to resume calling at the station shortly afterwards.

*2018 Completion of work to track,signalling and major bridges around London bridge station.

Network Rail is planning to create a new concourse it says will be larger than the pitch at Wembley Stadium. The work will also include new entrances at Tooley Street and St Thomas Street..

As part of the redevelopment Network Rail has also announced Balfour Beatty will carry out the £50m track remodelling work at the station. The work involves design, installation and testing of the track

Although the new concourse will be underneath the tracks and platforms, it will benefit from natural light. It will also be designed with capacity for around two thirds more passengers than use the station today.