HART - train changes due to major engineering projects

Engineering projects - Kings Cross and Moorgate tunnels

Engineering work will impact train services at Hatfield from Sat 14 Dec until summer 2020 - particularly at weekends and on weekday evenings.

From the December timetable change there will be significant investment by Network Rail into the infrastructure on both the Kings Cross / East Coast Mainline and the Northern City Line (Finsbury Park - Moorgate). These projects will involve service alterations across weekday evenings and weekends, but are necessary to improve the robustness of the system and provide for future service growth.

The main points include:

The early period has already been uploaded into journey planners, but more info will be provided as the project progresses. See below for extra info on each route.

Please share this news across any social media channels you use and let friends and colleagues know, so that people intending to use train services get the maximum forewarning of the changes and reductions.

A HART representative will be attending a stakeholder update session about the work next week, so we may have more info after that. If you have any queries, please let us know and we will raise them on your behalf.

Moorgate - line closed weekday evenings and weekends

Why is the work needed?

The tunnels and their associated signalling equipment are badly in need of cleaning and bringing up to a standard that will allow robust service delivery. If you use Moorgate services, you've probably suffered diversions to Kings Cross due to "track circuit failures" and this situation will only get worse if the work is not done. The main benefits for Hatfield rail users should be in experiencing fewer disruptions and cancellations over the next few years, combined with better service recovery when there is an incident of any sort (eg a passenger taken ill).

Why has the work been planned this way?

Our understanding is as follows:

Initial work has been carried out to assess the extent of the required work and assess how long is needed for it.
The overall timescale could be shortened by closing the line completely for a period, but this would take several weeks and there is limited scope to divert services to Kings Cross, so capacity would suffer significantly – particularly in the commuting peaks.
Continuing as at present with shorter night closures would extend the work significantly and in the meantime the current situation would continue to deteriorate causing more delays and disruption. A short night closure, with set-up and re-opening work, only permits a small amount of actual work. Bringing forward the start allows extra hours per night and more efficient use of resources.
The planned closure pattern balances speed of completion with minimising disruption to passengers.

What is the impact?

For the latest info, please keep an eye on the dedicated web page: https://www.greatnorthernrail.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/northern-city-line and journey planners such as http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search for trains running on specific dates.

Kings Cross / East Coast Mainline

What is happening?

This work is the next steps in the various projects that caused the August Bank Holiday closures.

There will be a range of service reductions and closures - again mainly impacting weekends and evenings. This includes 2 full weekends, for which we will have a complete line closure at Hatfield ie no trains at all:

Sat 25 - Sun 26 Jan
Sat 29 Feb - Sun 1 Mar

There will be limited bus replacements and ticket acceptance but, as with August, the advice is not to travel unless your journey is essential.

Where can I find more details?

For the latest info please see the dedicated website: https://eastcoastupgrade.co.uk and journey planners such as http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search for trains running on specific dates.

We are working on a wide range of other issues - impacting trains, the station and information provision - see our next newsletter for updates on some of these.

If you have an issue where you think we can assist, please let us know.

The next sessions are:

Kings Cross Thursday 7 Nov: 07:30 - 09:30

London Bridge Wednesday 4 Dec: 07:30 - 09:30

There are usually a good range of senior managers at these events and we would encourage you to go along and ask questions / raise issues.

We are hopeful that there might be a session at Moorgate at the end of this year or the beginning of 2020.

HART - train changes due to major engineering projects

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