Travel disruption in Kent after track fire at London Bridge station
A fire next to a train track at London Bridge station is causing travel disruption in Kent[1] today (May 20). The fire broke out at around 9pm last night, which resulted in the closure of platforms 6 and 7.
Hastings line services between London Bridge and Tonbridge[2] were cancelled as a result. The line reopened at about 11.45am today -but passengers are being warned to expect “significant disruption”.
A Southeastern spokesperson said: “There is extensive damage to over half a kilometre of cabling, which needs replacing along with damage to signalling infrastructure. Network Rail are sourcing replacement cable, and it is estimated it will take until 2pm on Sunday, May 21 to complete the repair work.”
They added that there may be some delays and alterations to services that run to and from London Bridge. “Services which run between Hastings and Charing Cross will terminate and start at London Bridge, but there is significant disruption between Tonbridge and London Bridge following the earlier incident,” the spokesperson said.
“Services which run between Orpington and Charing Cross will divert and start at London Cannon Street.” Meanwhile, due to planned engineering work, buses are replacing trains between Tonbridge and Sevenoaks[4].
The train company is telling passengers travelling to and from Tonbridge[5] and Hastings to either travel on high speed services between Ashford International and St Pancras International, or to use the replacement buses between Tonbridge and Orpington to connect with train services.
The lines in and out of platforms 6 and 7 at London Bridge station are set to remain closed until at least tomorrow afternoon. Network Rail Kent and Sussex tweeted: “London Fire Brigade were on site quickly at London Bridge station and put the fire out but our engineers couldn’t get to work immediately on the repairs as they needed to let the track and components cool down before it was safe.
“The fire caused extensive damage and our engineers need to run 9 separate 55-metre long cables to repair the damage. We anticipate this will mean the lines in and out of platforms 6 and 7 will remain closed until 2pm on Sunday.
“Our colleagues at Southeastern are still running a full service but there will be delays and alterations so please continue to check before you travel for latest advice.”