Reduced service on some Great Northern and Thameslink routes today 

Route(s) affected

Various Great Northern and Thameslink routes

Description

A shortage of trains due to extra safety inspections taking place means that fewer trains are able to run on some Great Northern and Thameslink routes. As a result, some services will be cancelled.

This is expected until the end of the day.

Customer advice:

Multiple services across the Great Northern and Thameslink networks have been cancelled today. If you are travelling today you will need to allow an additional 30 minutes onto your journey time.

Please check station screen and listen to staff announcements for more information. If you are travelling later today, live journey planners have been updated, so please check before you travel.

Which routes are affected?

A reduced service between:

• Peterborough to Horsham

• Bedford to Three Bridges / Brighton

Cambridge to Brighton services will be suspended.

There may be some short notice service amendments so please ensure you continue to check your journey before departing.

Ticket acceptance:

To help you complete your journey you will be able to use your ticket on any of the following at no extra cost

• Thameslink on any alternative service via your normal route.

• Southern between London, Horsham and Hove

• Great Northern between London Kings Cross and Peterborough or Cambridge

• Greater Anglia between London Liverpool Street and Cambridge

• London Underground via London Terminals

Planning your journey:

You can check train departures from your station here:

• Great Northern live departure boards

• Thameslink live departure boards

You can view live maps of the network here:

• Great Northern live route map

• Thameslink live route map

You can also see alternative route guides here:

• Great Northern alternative route guide

• Thameslink alternative route guide

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

The Great Northern and Thameslink apps will also help you plan your journey.

Can you tell me more about the incident?

Network Rail and Thameslink are investigating damage identified on the pantographs of a number of Class 700 trains. Pantographs are the roof-mounted arms which connect trains to the overhead electric wires that power them.

Running these trains with damaged pantographs could cause further damage to both trains and overhead line equipment, so the impacted trains are being inspected and repaired before being returned to service. Specialist engineers are working to identify the cause of the damage and investigations are ongoing.

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.