Charing Cross and Waterloo East reopen after £20m railway upgrade

Southeastern trains are once again running to London Charing Cross and Waterloo East following the completion of a major £20 million programme of engineering work.

The two busy central London stations have reopened after a 22-day closure, during which Southeastern services were diverted to other London terminals and temporary timetable changes were introduced across the network.

Network Rail and Southeastern say the extended closure allowed engineers to complete work in one concentrated programme that would otherwise have required around 60 separate weekend closures.

Nearly two kilometres of track replaced

One of the biggest parts of the project was the replacement of almost two kilometres of railway track between Charing Cross and Waterloo East, some of which had been in place for around 36 years.

Engineers also replaced switches and crossings — the sections of movable rail which allow trains to move from one track to another — south of Hungerford Bridge.

Work on the bridge itself included renewing wheel timbers, which perform a similar function to sleepers on sections of railway crossing bridges.

Structural repairs were also carried out to parts of the steelwork on Hungerford Bridge before the affected areas were repainted.

Platforms rebuilt at Charing Cross

The closure also provided an opportunity to carry out extensive work at London Charing Cross station.

Teams worked across all six platforms at the same time, demolishing and rebuilding sections of the platforms.

Around 540 tonnes of concrete was removed, new steelwork installed and more than 2,000 square metres of glass-reinforced plastic laid to provide new platform surfaces.

Improvements at Waterloo East

With trains and passengers temporarily absent from Waterloo East, engineers were also able to carry out improvements that would have been difficult or unsafe while the station was operating normally.

The station's footbridge steelwork was cleaned, treated and repainted to provide additional protection from the weather.

Window panels have also been replaced with self-cleaning glass, designed to allow more light into the station's passageways. The new windows can also be opened to improve ventilation.

18 months of planning

Network Rail and Southeastern, working together as the South Eastern Railway, spent around 18 months planning the closure.

The organisations say carrying out the work during a single 22-day period over the summer holidays reduced the overall disruption to passengers.

Commuter numbers are typically around 20% lower during the summer holiday period, while the alternative would have involved approximately 60 weekend closures or four separate nine-day closures.

The work is intended to improve the reliability of the railway and extend the life of infrastructure serving one of the busiest approaches to central London.

Scott Brightwell, Safety, Planning and Performance Director at South Eastern Railway, said:

“We are pleased to have reopened the line between Charing Cross and London Bridge after 22 days of intensive work.

“We know closing two of London’s busiest stations for more than three weeks caused inconvenience for many customers, I am sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

“Completing this essential work in one 22-day closure, rather than over 60 weekends, allowed us to carry out station improvement works that would, otherwise, have been impossible to achieve.”

He also thanked the hundreds of railway staff who worked around the clock on the project, including during periods of high temperatures.

Liz Baldwin, Southern Integrated Delivery Director at Southern Renewals Enterprise, described the completion of the project as one of the organisation's most significant achievements to date.

She thanked railway staff, contractors, passengers and local communities for their cooperation while the work was taking place.

Southeastern services return to normal

The reopening means Southeastern trains are once again able to serve London Charing Cross and Waterloo East, ending the temporary arrangements which saw services diverted to alternative London terminals during the engineering programme.

Passengers are advised to check their journey before travelling for any further planned engineering work or timetable changes.