Incident resolved between London Blackfriars and London St Pancras International: major disruption is expected until 20:00 

Route(s) affected

Between Brighton / Three Bridges / Haywards Heath / East Grinstead and Bedford, between Brighton and Cambridge, between Horsham and Peterborough, between Orpington / Rainham (Kent) / Elephant & Castle and Luton, between Rainham (Kent) / Orpington and West Hampstead Thameslink, between Sutton and St Albans City, and also between Sevenoaks and Welwyn Garden City

Description

The earlier fault with the signalling system between London Blackfriars and London St Pancras International has now been rectified, allowing the line running towards London St Pancras International to reopen.

Until service recovers, trains may still be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised.

Major disruption is expected until 20:00.

Customer advice:

An earlier signalling fault at City Thameslink has been severely disrupting northbound trains through London. In reaction, some southbound trains have also been affected on their return journeys.

Congestion has reduced, but some trains have already been delayed by up to 30 minutes in the area.

Thameslink have also had to make some changes to services, in order to prevent the delays worsening.

This means your journey could still take much longer than usual.

Changes to trains:

Teams are working to get back to the timetable, but the following changes may still affect your travel plans.

Services between Three Bridges and Bedford via Redhill:

These are still likely to be cancelled, in both directions.

For the Redhill area, alternative trains run on the route between Horsham and Peterborough.

Teams will be working to make sure Salfords and Earlswood are served by alternative Thameslink trains. Details will be shown on station screens, announcements and online journey planners.

Thameslink trains will also be running between Brighton and Bedford.

To help provide further options, you can use East Midlands Railway services between London St Pancras International, Luton Airport Parkway, Luton and Bedford, but they don't serve any other stations on this route.

Services between Sutton and St Albans City (via either Mitcham Junction or Wimbledon / Tooting):

These trains are now significantly amended. Where possible, these will run as a limited shuttle train service between Kentish Town and St Albans City, calling at all stations in each direction.

There are numerous alternative public transport routes in the area, and we have arranged for your ticket to be valid on these. You can see details below.

Other services:

Late-running trains may be revised, and may not stop at all the usual stations en route. Others may only complete parts of their normal journeys.

Alternative options for your journey:

It is expected that you may need to use a different train, or change trains to get to your destination, which will take longer than usual.

Tickets will be accepted on some alternative routes, as this may be quicker for some local journeys, especially in the London area.

You can use Thameslink tickets at no extra cost on the following:

South of London:

• Southern services between the South Coast, Horsham, Gatwick Airport, Redhill, East Croydon or Sutton and London

• Gatwick Express services between Brighton, Gatwick Airport and London Victoria

• Southeastern services between:

  • Herne Hill and London Victoria

  • Rainham, Dartford, Greenwich and London, except high speed services

• South Western Railway services between Wimbledon and London Waterloo

• Metrobus services between Gatwick Airport, Horley, Salfords, Earlswood and Redhill, including routes 100, 420 and 460 (a further change of buses may be needed to use another route to reach Horley Station)

• London Buses between Redhill, Merstham, Coulsdon South, Purley and the Croydon area, including route 405

Across London:

• London Underground services on any reasonable route across London, including transfers between London terminals

• London Buses on routes between the London Bridge area, Blackfriars, St Pancras and Finsbury Park, as well as routes serving stations towards Elstree

• Docklands Light Railway services between Central London and Greenwich / Woolwich

• Elizabeth line services between Abbey Wood and Farringdon

• London Trams between Wimbledon, Mitcham Junction, West Croydon and East Croydon

• Southeastern services between Herne Hill and London Victoria

North of London:

• Great Northern services between London, Finsbury Park, Stevenage and Cambridge

• East Midlands Railway services between London St Pancras International, Luton Airport Parkway, Luton and Bedford

• LNER services between London Kings Cross, Stevenage and Peterborough

• London Buses serving stations between Central London and the Elstree area

• London Northwestern Railway services between:

  • London Euston, Watford Junction and Bletchley

  • Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey (around 25 minutes' walk from St Albans City)

  • Bletchley and Bedford

Planning your journey:

It is expected that you will need to leave some extra time for your journey. You may need to use a different train, or change trains more often than usual.

If you need to use another public transport route, we will let you know, but this isn't currently needed.

You can also view a live departure boards and a live map of the network.

You can also use the app to find up-to-date information.

Can you tell me more about this?

Earlier today, trains were running at reduced speeds past one of the signals on the northbound approach to City Thameslink station. This is because a contingency measure was in use, and the normal functions of the signal were not available. Trains were able to move, but with severe delays.

The root cause was a track circuit failure. Track circuits are electronic systems which detect the presence of trains on each section of track. If they develop a fault, trains cannot be allowed into the area as quickly as normal, as the system is "failsafe".

Response staff have now fixed an electrical issue which caused this, and Thameslink are working hard to get back to a normal service.

Check before you travel:

You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.

Compensation:

You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.