Disruption at St Albans City expected until the end of the day 

Route(s) affected

Between Bedford and Gatwick Airport / Three Bridges / Brighton, between Luton and Gatwick Airport / Rainham (Kent), and also between St Albans City and Sutton

Description

A points failure at St Albans City means some lines are blocked. As a result, train services running through this station may be delayed up to 20 minutes or revised.

Disruption expected until the end of the day.

Customer advice:

A points failure in the St Albans City area is leading to changes to trains which usually start and finish their journeys at this station.

Some Thameslink services which run between St Albans City and Sutton will be cancelled, and others will be amended, running as an extended service between Harpenden and Sutton.

Where trains are amended, they will extend their journeys through to Harpenden, after leaving St Albans City. Southbound services on this route will still start from St Albans City.

If you are affected by a cancellation, you may need to leave around 30-45 minutes of extra time, and for local journeys between Elephant & Castle and Sutton, you may wish to consider using an alternative route.

There may also be some delays of up to 20 minutes to trains as they travel through the St Albans City area, but we are working to reduce congestion.

Thameslink tickets will be accepted for no extra cost on the following alternatives:

• Southern services between London Bridge and Sutton, also between London Bridge and East Croydon

• Thameslink services between Blackfriars and East Croydon

• South Western Railway services between London Waterloo and Wimbledon

• Southeastern services between London Victoria and Herne Hill

• London Trams between East Croydon, Mitcham Junction and Wimbledon

• London Underground on any reasonable route, including between London Terminals, in the North London area, and services to or from Tooting Bec, Morden and Wimbledon

• London buses between Elstree & Borehamwood, Mill Hill Broadway, Hendon, Brent Cross, Cricklewood, West Hampstead, St Pancras, Blackfriars, Streatham, Sutton and Wimbledon

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

You can also view 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.

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

Can you tell me more about the incident?

A points failure at St Albans City is being investigated by Network Rail. Until this is resolved, a short section of track is out of use, just north of the station. This is normally used by trains which finish their journeys here, at which point they run a short distance to the north, and then they change direction and return to the south.

Because of this fault, we are having to send trains to Harpenden to turn back, which is a longer journey and changes the way that trains run in sequence through the area. In reaction, Thameslink can't run their full number of services on the route between St Albans City and Sutton.

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.