Putney commuters face three more weekends of rail disruption in January following the completion of 11 days of Christmas engineering works between Waterloo and Clapham Junction.
South Western Railway services through Putney will be affected on the weekends of 10-11 January, 24-25 January, and 31 January-1 February as Network Rail carries out follow-up maintenance from the major Queenstown Road upgrade.
The disruption comes immediately after the busiest stretch of railway in the country reopened on Monday (5 January), with services resuming after works that renewed 1,000 metres of track and upgraded signalling systems.
Weekend closures affecting Putney
On 10-11 January, trains to Windsor and Weybridge will start from Clapham Junction rather than Waterloo, missing out Putney entirely. This affects four of the station’s regular hourly services.
The 24-25 January weekend sees Weybridge services diverted via Twickenham to avoid the Hounslow Loop, again bypassing Putney. Two trains per hour will be affected.
A third weekend of disruption runs 31 January-1 February with reduced and amended services to Waterloo, though specific details for Putney routes have not yet been confirmed by SWR.
Your alternatives
East Putney station on the District Line is unaffected by the works and provides direct services to central London via Earl’s Court and Westminster.
Bus route 39 runs from Putney Bridge to Clapham Junction every 10 minutes, taking approximately 45-50 minutes. Routes 337 and 37 also connect Putney with Clapham Junction, where passengers can connect with Southern services to Victoria.
SWR advises passengers to check journey times before travelling using the National Rail Enquiries journey planner.
Works aim to improve reliability
George Murrell, Route Renewals Director for South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex, said the Christmas works will make the railway more resilient.
“The improvements will make one of the busiest stretches of railway in the country more resilient and customers can expect fewer faults and delays, together with smoother and more reliable journeys,” he said.
The 11-day Christmas closure involved more than 350 engineers working around the clock to replace switches and crossings, renew the electrified third rail, upgrade signalling and power systems, and alter platforms at Queenstown Road station.
Network Rail says concentrating the work over Christmas avoided the need for eight separate weekend closures, though the three January weekends represent additional maintenance work arising from the main programme.
Putney station was heavily affected by the Christmas engineering works, with services disrupted from 27 December to 4 January.
Passengers can find full details of the January engineering works on the SWR planned improvements page.
