Incident resolved: major disruption between London St Pancras International and London Blackfriars expected until 22:00 

Route(s) affected

Between Bedford and Three Bridges / Brighton, between Cambridge and Brighton, between Peterborough and Horsham, between Luton and Rainham (Kent), between Kentish Town and Orpington, and also between Sutton and St Albans City

Description

The lines have now reopened following a failure of the electricity supply between London St Pancras International and London Blackfriars earlier today.

Whilst service recovers, trains running between these stations may still be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised.

This is expected to cause major disruption until 22:00.

Customer advice:

All lines through London Blackfriars have now reopened, and trains can begin to run through the area as usual.

Thameslink are working to return to the scheduled timetable, but please continue to check journey planners and station information boards before you travel. Thameslink services through the London area will still be disrupted, and your journey may still take at least 60 minutes longer than usual.

The following service changes may still apply:

• A reduced Bedford to Three Bridges service will run

Direct services from Bedford to Three Bridges are cancelled. Please travel on a Brighton to Bedford service instead.

• Cambridge to Brighton services will not run

You can use Great Northern services from London Kings Cross to Cambridge as an alternative. Change at London St Pancras International, for a short journey to or from London Kings Cross.

• St Albans to Wimbledon services are reduced

Some services will terminate and restart from either Kentish Town or Mill Hill Broadway.

• Rainham to Luton services will run between Dartford and Rainham (Kent) only

You can travel on alternative Southeastern services between London Victoria and Rainham.

• Horsham to Peterborough services run between Horsham and London Bridge only

From London Bridge, you can use alternatives towards London St Pancras International. From here, you can travel to London Kings Cross (only a short distance from London St Pancras International), where you can then travel to Hitchin. A limited shuttle service between Hitchin and Peterborough is now in place.

A limited number of rail replacement buses are in place between Hitchin and Peterborough. These are expected to be extremely busy, so if you can instead travel later today, or via an alternative route using the options below, please do. For more information, please speak to station staff.

No trains will call at Salfords or Earlswood in the direction towards London until further notice. Southern trains will still call at these stations in a Southbound direction.

If you are travelling to or from these stations, you will need to travel using Southern services via Gatwick Airport for connections with northbound trains towards London. You can also use your ticket to travel on Metrobus routes between Redhill and Gatwick.

Alternative travel options:

You can use your ticket, at no extra cost, with the following operators:

North of London

• Alternative Thameslink or Great Northern services on any reasonable route

• London buses between Elstree & Borehamwood and central London

• LNER between London Kings Cross and Peterborough

• East Midlands Railway services between London St Pancras International and Bedford, and also between Ely and Peterborough

• Greater Anglia services between Ely and Peterborough

• CrossCountry services between Ely and Peterborough

Across London

• London Underground across central London

• London buses across central London

South of London

• Southern services between London Bridge / London Victoria, Sutton and Brighton

• Gatwick Express services between London Victoria and Brighton

• Elizabeth line services between Farringdon and Abbey Wood

• London buses on routes between London Bridge and Dartford

• Great Western Railway services between Redhill and Gatwick Airport

• South Western Railway between Wimbledon and London Waterloo

• Southeastern between Sevenoaks, Rainham and London

• London Trams between Wimbledon and East Croydon

• Metrobus routes between Crawley and Horsham, including routes:

  • 2 for Crawley and Ifield

  • 23 for Crawley, Faygate, and Horsham

  • 200 for Horsham, Littlehaven, Faygate, Ifield, and Gatwick Airport

  • 400 for Crawley, Three Bridges, Gatwick Airport, Salfords (Church), Earlswood (A23), and Redhill

Please note that if your journey includes replacement road transport, your journey will take up to an additional 30 minutes to reach your destination.

Planning your journey:

You can check your journey using the Live Departure Boards, and you can view a live map of the network.

Please check journey planners and station information boards before you travel, and allow extra time to reach your destination.

You can also see an alternative route guide.

If you're travelling in the London area, you can plan journeys on alternative routes by using the TfL Journey Planner.


Can you tell me more about the incident?

Network Rail is looking into a power supply issue at London Blackfriars, which has brought a train to a stand, blocking one of the two available lines through the station. This affects all Thameslink services through central London.

While this is ongoing, some trains can continue to run through the area using the remaining available line in both directions. This will cause delays to trains as they will need to queue to pass through the area. Because of this, fewer trains than usual will run through central London until further notice.

Specialist Network Rail engineers - called 'fitters' - are on site now and working with the driver to try and get the train on the move. Once this is done, further checks of the railway infrastructure will take place to ensure no damage has been caused.

Check before you travel:

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

For helpful advice if you need to travel on a rail replacement service, including accessibility and bicycle information, please use our Rail Replacement Services page.

You can find the pick-up and set-down location of rail replacement services by checking station signage or by searching for your station on our Find a Station page.

Please be advised that replacement vehicles may be busier than usual, and you should allow extra time for your journey.

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.