Putney commuters face four more weekends of rail disruption starting this Saturday as South Western Railway continues engineering work following the major Christmas shutdown.
Services through Putney will be affected on 31 January-1 February and 8 February, with Queenstown Road station closed on both weekends and multiple routes starting from Clapham Junction rather than Waterloo.
The disruption follows three January weekends already affected by the ongoing maintenance programme, which saw more than 350 engineers upgrade track, signalling and power systems in the Queenstown Road area over Christmas.
This weekend: services start at Clapham Junction
On Saturday 31 January and Sunday 1 February, trains to Reading, Windsor, Weybridge and the Richmond-Wimbledon loop will start and terminate at Clapham Junction rather than Waterloo, cutting off Putney’s direct link to central London.
Sunday sees additional disruption, with Hampton Court services starting from Surbiton and Dorking services cancelled completely. Passengers to Dorking should use Southern services from Clapham Junction or Epsom.
Several routes will skip Vauxhall and Earlsfield stations on Sunday, with revised stopping patterns on services to Guildford and Shepperton.
Following weekend: Barnes area closed
On Sunday 8 February, the line through Barnes, Putney and Wandsworth Town will be closed all day, with buses replacing trains between Clapham Junction and Richmond.
Passengers will need to use replacement buses to reach Clapham Junction or Richmond to connect with other services, or use the District Line from East Putney.
Your alternatives
East Putney station on the District Line is unaffected by all engineering works and provides direct services to central London via Earl’s Court and Westminster (as long as it doesn’t rain).
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 use Southern services to Victoria.
Works aim to improve reliability
George Murrell, Route Renewals Director for South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex, said the works would 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.
Putney station was heavily affected by the Christmas engineering works, with services disrupted from 27 December to 4 January, followed by three more weekends of disruption in January on 10-11, 24-25 and 31 January.
Passengers can find full details of the engineering works on the SWR planned improvements page at its website.
I’d love to see that train come through Putney – is it Russian or Chinese even American!?
Much appreciate the quality of your journalism, have recommended you to all Wandsworth Society members.
So nice to have some news that’s balanced, objective and honest in this new world of make believe and lack of responsibility. Also appreciated you turning up at the exhibition of the 3 one armed artists.
Thanks, Bruce St Julian-Bown