Commuters through London Bridge station face nine days of disruption from this weekend, as First Capital Connect and Southern services are diverted elsewhere.
This will not be fun. It is, however, necessary. London Bridge is the oldest major station in the capital and handles 54 million passengers a year, while platform 6 is reckoned to be the busiest in Europe, with 18 trains per hour. So the station is long overdue an upgrade. The Thameslink Programme, which has already seen, among other achievements, the complete overhaul of Blackfriars station, is finally kitting out London Bridge for the 21st century.
Work is currently underway to rebuild all the platforms and create a spacious new concourse among the ancient arches beneath. When finished in mid-2016, this concourse will cover an area greater than Wembley's pitch. It will also introduce a new north-south axis into the station, making it easier to move between the thriving Bermondsey Street area and the Thames. Many of the Victorian arches supporting the platforms will also be revealed.
New platforms 14 and 15 opened in March 2014. The engineering works taking place between 23 and 31 August will complete the reconstruction of platforms 12 and 13, which will open at the start of September. Platforms 10 and 11 will then close for rebuilding, as work progresses north, two platforms at a time. Eventually, all platforms at London Bridge will be fully integrated to the same concourse for the first time.
The project will be completed in 2018, a little before the opening of Crossrail. Click through the gallery above for more details about the changes.
