16.01.15
More delays at London Bridge just days after vow to fix them
Delays due to signalling failures are affecting Southern services travelling towards London Bridge, just two days after the TOC and Network Rail apologised for the second time for poor performance on those routes.
Services from East and West Croydon towards London Bridge were being delayed by up to 20 minutes during morning peak due to a signalling failure at New Cross Gate.
On Wednesday a joint statement from Southern and Network Rail “accepted” that performance on routes into London Bridge has not been “good enough”.
The companies have been working on an improvement plan and have made alterations to the timetable to ease the congestion on the network which is one of the main contributing factors towards the delays.
Then yesterday Network Rail released another separate statement apologising for unreliable equipment near New Cross Gate that have caused delays this week.
The statement said: “The equipment, which includes a set of points at a junction east of London Bridge station near New Cross Gate, has not provided the reliability expected and engineers are tackling the problem.”
However it appears this problem has struck again causing more delays.
Thameslink programme director Simon Blanchflower said: "Passengers and operators expect equipment to work reliably and so do we. We realise the quality of the service we have offered around London Bridge has not been good enough this week and we are doing everything we can to get to the root of the problems.
"We have already undertaken a great deal of work on site and we have identified the key equipment that needs to be tackled.
"The Thameslink Programme is a huge undertaking that will bring a big improvement to travel through London Bridge, but in the meantime we are working hard to improve the services people are relying on today."
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