Charing Cross and Waterloo East close for £20M upgrade

Two of London's busiest railway stations will close for 22 days this summer as part of a major infrastructure upgrade, forcing significant changes for millions of passengers. Charing Cross and Waterloo East stations will be shut from Sunday, July 26, through Sunday, August 16, for a £20 million program of track, platform, and structural improvements.

The extended closure, announced by Southeastern Railway, is designed to complete a generation's worth of essential work in a single concentrated period. The project includes installing 1,800 metres of new track, rebuilding platform ends at Charing Cross, upgrading track drainage at Waterloo East, and carrying out structural repairs on the 175-year-old Hungerford Bridge, which carries trains over the River Thames. The current track was last replaced in the early 1990s and has become increasingly unreliable, causing over 21,000 minutes of delays in recent years.

To minimize disruption, the work has been scheduled for the summer holiday period when passenger numbers are approximately 20 percent lower and schools are closed. Southeastern services that normally run into Charing Cross will be diverted to London Victoria, Cannon Street,...