Residual disruption between South Croydon and Sanderstead / Purley expected until 23:00  

Route(s) affected

Gatwick Express between London Victoria and Brighton

Southern between London Victoria and Caterham / Littlehampton / Bognor Regis / Portsmouth Harbour / Eastbourne / Ore, and between London Bridge and Caterham / Uckfield

Thameslink between Bedford and Gatwick Express / Three Bridges / East Grinstead / Brighton, and between Cambridge and Brighton, and between Luton and Gatwick Airport, and also between Peterborough / London Bridge and Horsham

Description

Following a number of incident between South Croydon and Sanderstead / Purley means all lines have reopened. As service recovers, trains may still be delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised.

Disruption is expected until 23:00.

Customer advice:

Southern and Thameslink services have been delayed on routes via East Croydon.

This is due to:

• An earlier trespass incident in the South Croydon area

• The emergency services dealing with an incident between Purley and Redhill earlier

• Some northbound trains being delayed by an earlier signalling problem at Purley Oaks

• The emergency services dealing with a further incident in the East Croydon area

Trains have been affected in both directions, northbound and southbound.

Staff are now getting back to our timetable, but we still recommend you check our journey planning tools, and when you are travelling, listen to announcements and check station screens. If your train is still affected, you may need to leave up to 15-20 minutes of extra time for your journey.

Some Gatwick Express services may be cancelled in both directions between London Victoria, Gatwick Airport, Haywards Heath and Brighton.

There may also be a few further service changes and cancellations affecting Southern and Thameslink at short notice. Where there are changes to services, they may not stop at all the usual stations, and others may only complete parts of their normal journeys.

As a result, you may need to change trains more often to get to your destination.

Alternative journey options:

Please check whether a train is running on your normal route first.

However, if you prefer, your ticket will be accepted at no extra cost on the following:

North of London:

• Great Northern services to & from London Kings Cross or Moorgate

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

• LNER services between London Kings Cross and Peterborough

London area:

• London Buses on any reasonable route across the area between Redhill, Purley, Croydon and Central London

• London Underground services across London on any reasonable route

• London Trams between Wimbledon, Mitcham Junction, West Croydon, East Croydon and either Beckenham Junction or Elmers End

• Southeastern services between Hastings, Tonbridge, Beckenham Junction or Elmers End and Central London

• South Western Railway services between Wimbledon and London Waterloo

• London Overground services on the Windrush line between West Croydon and Canada Water, for Jubilee line Tube connections

• Alternative Southern services via West Croydon or via Mitcham Junction

• Alternative Thameslink services via Mitcham Junction

South of London:

• Southeastern services between Hastings or Tonbridge and Central London

• South Western Railway services between Portsmouth or Guildford and London Waterloo

• Great Western Railway services between Gatwick Airport, Redhill and Guildford

• Metrobus services on the following routes:
  

Redhill and Tattenham Corner areas:

• 20 between Horley, Gatwick Airport and Three Bridges

• 100 between Redhill, Gatwick Airport and Three Bridges

• 420 between Sutton, Tattenham Corner, Tadworth, Reigate, Redhill, Gatwick Airport and Crawley

• 460 between Epsom, Tattenham Corner, Tadworth, Reigate, Redhill, Gatwick Airport and Crawley

• 430 and 435 across the whole of both routes, around Merstham, Redhill and Earlswood

East Grinstead route:

• 291 between Three Bridges and East Grinstead

• 400 between Redhill, Gatwick Airport and East Grinstead

Horsham and Crawley routes:

• 2 between Crawley and Ifield

• 3, 4 and 5 between the Crawley, Three Bridges and Gatwick Airport areas

• 23 between Horsham, Crawley and Faygate

• 200 between Horsham, Littlehaven, Faygate, the Ifield area and Gatwick Airport

You may also use your ticket interchangeably between Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express services via Gatwick Airport, to & from London, where services are available.

Due to the time of the evening, please check whether a service is still running, if you use one of these alternatives.

Also please be aware that using an alternative route may still take longer than usual.

Airport journeys:

If you are travelling to Gatwick Airport for a flight, please leave extra time, as the Gatwick Express is generally not available at present. Alternative Southern and Thameslink services will serve Gatwick Airport, with delays.

Also, if you are travelling to Luton Airport Parkway, Thameslink services via this station will be disrupted.

Planning your journey:

You can use live departure boards and see a live map of the network, this will show where your journey is likely to be affected.

You can see an alternative route guide.

You can also use Southern / Thameslink app to find up-to-date information.

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?

Local staff, emergency services and our colleagues at Network Rail have been working to find and remove the trespasser in the South Croydon area.

Response teams have now completed work on site, carrying out a thorough check of the area.

Until this was done, trains had to run at reduced speeds, which has led to substantial congestion.

The emergency services have also been working to deal with a further incident between Purley and Redhill.

Network Rail will be attending to the signalling fault at Purley Oaks as quickly as possible.

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.