Putney faces its most disrupted spring for trains yet

On Easter Sunday, Putney station will have no trains at all. Network Rail is closing the line between Clapham Junction and Barnes on 5 April, and Putney passengers will find there is no resurrection of services until Monday. It is the first complete suspension of services here in the current series of engineering works.

Replacement buses will run between Clapham Junction and Barnes, calling at Putney. For London, take the bus to Clapham Junction and change there. For Richmond or Kingston, go to Barnes and pick up loop services from there. The East Putney District Line runs normally throughout and is the quickest alternative for tube-connected destinations.

Easter Sunday is the worst of it, but the whole weekend is disrupted. The works run from Friday 3 April to Monday 6 April, and on the other three days Putney station stays open, with a catch: Reading, Windsor, and loop services all start from Clapham Junction rather than Waterloo, so anyone heading into central London needs to change. Queenstown Road closes for all four days.

It is, in short, a Good Friday in name only. Network Rail says the works involve renewing switches and crossings that keep services running at Waterloo, the busiest National Rail terminus in the country.

More dates and disruptions

The Easter weekend is the peak of a disrupted spring. The disruption starts this Sunday, 15 March, when Reading services run via Barnes and Hounslow rather than direct, the latest in a series of engineering works stretching back to January. On 21–22 March and 28–29 March, Wimbledon area closures push displaced passengers onto the District Line, so expect busier than usual services at East Putney and Southfields on both those weekends. After Easter, a Richmond area closure on 25 and 26 April removes or reroutes most loop services, with Reading and Windsor trains diverted via Barnes and Feltham.

Boat Race day, 4 April, is one of the quieter weekends for SWR, but the Richmond closure falls the very next weekend, worth keeping in mind when planning the return journey.

For all disrupted dates, check southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey before travelling.

Correction: In an earlier version we wrongly stated that the Boat Race was being held on 29 March when it is of course on 4 April. This is officially the most embarrassing correction that Putney.news has had to post.