Wednesday 22 May 2013

London Bridge Station

There is an early warning to Kent commuters and other railway users travelling to and from London Bridge railway station, in that although work on the re-vamp of the station is to start very soon, its direct impact on this area's travellers won't commence until the end of 2014.

This will be the start of a two-year period of what look to be unavoidable disruptions to services, including trains not stopping at the station at all during that period. Of course, if the work necessitating the disruption is completed in early 2016 (the exact timing isn't specified) then it will have been little more than one year – but it is not characteristic of such work to be finished in a timely fashion in this country.

The Kent OnLine site's Paul Francis has the details as currently known.

I am reasonably familiar with London Bridge station, and it seems to me to work well enough as it is. I wasn't aware that there was an apparent need to re-vamp the place, nor that there were any plans to do so. I can't help wondering if this is a sensible project at this time.

No doubt someone out there will correct my view and point out a number of inadequacies that necessitate a wholesale update; but at present I cannot perceive any – not because it's perfect, but it doesn't seem to need this huge investment that might have been better utilised improving a number of smaller stations instead.

That's just my perception, though...

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