Lewisham station will be closed for the whole weekend as Southeastern carries out major engineering works, with passengers warned to expect significant disruption across south-east London on Saturday and Sunday.
With Lewisham station closed on September 26 and 27, a string of trains will pass through the busy interchange — a key hub for National Rail and DLR services — without stopping, while eight stations on the Bexleyheath line are left with replacement buses and no trains at all.
The operator has urged anyone travelling in the area to check their journey before setting out and to allow plenty of extra time, warning that timetables will look very different from normal.
Lewisham is one of south-east London’s busiest rail hubs, linking National Rail services with the DLR and a host of bus routes, and the full-station closure is set to affect thousands of weekend journeys. Southeastern said the works are essential to keep the railway running reliably.
Saturday’s timetable rewritten
On Saturday, trains between Charing Cross and Dartford via Bexleyheath will not run, and services between Victoria and Dartford or Gravesend are also suspended for the day.
Services from Cannon Street to Slade Green via Bexleyheath will be diverted to run via Sidcup instead. A number of other routes will operate but skip Lewisham entirely, including Charing Cross trains to Dartford via Sidcup, services to Hayes and trains to Sevenoaks.
With the Bexleyheath line closed, replacement buses will run between New Cross and Dartford via Bexleyheath, calling at all stations. No trains will call at Lewisham, Blackheath, Kidbrooke, Eltham, Falconwood, Welling, Bexleyheath or Barnehurst.
Tickets accepted on DLR, buses and Tube
To help passengers get around the closure, Southeastern tickets will be accepted on the DLR between Lewisham and Greenwich, on selected London bus routes including the 48, 78 and P12, and on the Underground between Victoria, Charing Cross, Embankment and Cannon Street.
Bromley South also hit
In a separate programme of works, engineering between Brixton and Shortlands will close the lines via Herne Hill and Beckenham Junction, hitting a second pocket of the network.
Trains between Victoria and Orpington will be diverted via Denmark Hill, picking up an extra stop there before running non-stop to Shortlands. Brixton station will be closed all day.
Replacement buses will run between Denmark Hill and Bromley South via Beckenham Junction, calling at all stations, and tickets will be accepted on the Underground between Victoria and Brixton. The stations left without trains are Herne Hill, West Dulwich, Sydenham Hill, Penge East, Kent House and Beckenham Junction.
Early Sunday changes
The disruption stretches into the early hours of Sunday, with engineering work in the Dartford area altering the first trains of the day.
The 6.50am service from Dartford to Charing Cross via Sidcup will start from Crayford instead, with a replacement bus leaving Dartford at 6.40am to connect. The 7.33am from Gravesend to Charing Cross via Sidcup will begin at Dartford, with a bus departing Gravesend at 7.03am and calling at all stations to Dartford.
The closure adds to a weekend of rail misery across the capital, with London Overground passengers also facing major disruption on the same weekend. It follows a series of weekend closures on the Tube and DLR earlier this month.
Southeastern says a normal service is expected to resume on Monday. Passengers are advised to check live departure boards and allow extra time for every journey until the works are complete, with the operator warning that replacement bus queues could be lengthy at the busiest times. Weekend engineering work is a regular feature of the railway calendar, and operators routinely advise passengers to check before they travel.
