Over the Bank Holiday weekend, the Northern City Line will be closed for engineering work between Finsbury Park and Moorgate and on Sunday 28 August, there will be no Thameslink or Great Northern service between Finsbury Park and Stevenage via Welwyn Garden City.
The changes to services on each route are summarised below.
The work is part of the Government-funded East Coast Digital Programme, which will ultimately see traditional signals removed from the tracks. Digital signalling reduces delays and enables a more reliable service for passengers.
The section of the East Coast Main Line from Welwyn Garden City to Hitchin will be the first on the inter-city route to benefit from digital signalling, which involves a new operating system, linked to a screen in the driver’s cab, that continuously calculates a safe maximum speed for each train.
The works taking place on the East Coast Main Line on Sunday 28 August will involve the delivery and installation of 67 equipment cabinets necessary for preparing the route to transition to digital operations. It is expected that the first trains to operate over that section using digital signalling will run in 2025.
Over the Bank Holiday weekend, teams will also be working to upgrade the tracks on the Northern City Line, between Finsbury Park and Moorgate, to get it ready for digital signalling operations from early 2023. The Northern City Line is expected to be fully digitally signalled from early 2024.
Changes to services on East Coast Mainline on Sunday 28 August:
- There will be no Thameslink or Great Northern services between Finsbury Park and Stevenage via Welwyn Garden City.
- Trains between London and Cambridge/King’s Lynn/Peterborough will divert non-stop via Hertford North, with extended journey times
- Buses will replace trains between Alexandra Palace and Stevenage via Welwyn Garden City
- Buses will also replace trains between Hertford North and Stevenage, via Watton-at-Stone
Changes to services on Northern City Line over the August Bank Holiday weekend:
- On 27/28/29 August, no trains will run between Finsbury Park and Moorgate.
- Trains which usually run to and from Moorgate will be diverted into London King’s Cross. Tickets will be accepted on London Bus route 271 and on London Underground between London Kings Cross / London St Pancras International and Moorgate.
Passengers are advised to allow plenty of time for their journey and check before travelling via National Rail Enquires, www.greatnorthernrail.com or www.thameslinkrailway.com
I’d like to thank you for your continued patience whilst this vital work takes place.
