Major changes to train services August 2017
South West Trains have announced that between 5th – 28th August 2017 they are extending platforms 1 – 4 at London Waterloo to enable 10 car trains to operate across more services. In order for this work to be completed platforms 1 – 9 at Waterloo will need to be closed, (look at an overhead view of the lines to see why) some former Waterloo International platforms will be brought into use but this will seriously impact on capacity at Waterloo.
The full details of services will not be available until the new year, however the works are likely to have implications for services to Teddington. Teddington station is described as having significantly reduced services during this time on the South West Trains information page and with Norbiton station being CLOSED between the 5th – 28th August can we deduce that Teddington will only get via Twickenham and Richmond services which stop/start from Kingston?
The Shepperton branch will still see services but will be ‘significantly’ reduced. If these trains also run via Richmond as per the additional peak hour trains that are currently in place, Teddington could be left with only 2 trains per hour in each direction. Clearly SWT could have made the decision to run trains fast from Kingston to New Malden and not stop at Norbiton which is only a smaller stop, but until the official timetable is released in 2017, we’re none the wiser!
The official information from South West Trains is as follows:
Significantly fewer trains will call at this station from 5-28 August 2017.
As a result, services will be much busier than usual and your journey is likely to take longer.
You may also wish to consider:
- Travelling earlier or later than normal to avoid the busiest times of the day. The busiest times to travel are between 8am and 9am and between 5pm and 6pm. To help you travel outside of these times we will provide longer trains for extended periods during the morning and evening
- Travelling from a different station or via an alternative route
- If you are organising next year’s holiday you might want to keep these changes in mind.
Detailed timetable information will be provided in the New Year.
