More weekend closures planned for King’s Cross during 2020

Network Rail and train operators serving London King’s Cross have announced the next set of dates for a series of disruptive possessions on the East Coast Main Line.

King’s Cross, which currently handles some 38 million passengers a year, will be completely closed on two weekends in early 2020 (January 25-26 and February 29-March 1). There will also be five weekends of reduced service (January 4-5, 11-12, 18-19 and February 8-9 and 15-16), when passengers will need to allow additional time for their journeys.

The closures and part-closures form part of NR’s £1.2 billion East Coast Upgrade, which comprises a suite of enhancements including construction of a grade-separated junction to the north of Peterborough at Werrington, the building of a new platform at Stevenage, power supply upgrades, and asset renewal and track remodelling in the King’s Cross station throat.

Control of signalling equipment is also being transferred from King’s Cross signal box (which will close) to the Rail Operating Centre at York.

The upgrade is designed to increase the number of hourly longdistance high-speed train paths between London and Doncaster from six to eight by December 2021, adding an extra 10,000 seats per day on inter-city services.

NR and operators have warned passengers that services running to the capital on any of these dates are likely to be extremely busy, and that seat reservations are advised (where possible).

NR’s Principal Programme Sponsor Ed Akers said: “We’re really sorry for the disruption this work will cause, but the ECML is long due an upgrade. We’re working to provide more seats and more frequent, reliable and faster journeys for the millions of people who use the line every year - and we can’t do that without causing some disruption.”

A spokesman for train operators along the route added: “To allow the East Coast Upgrade to progress, there will be changes to services throughout 2020. Details of the dates from March onwards will be available at a later date.”

Further work is likely to include a three-month partial blockade of King’s Cross, when up to 50% of the station will need to be closed to complete the £237 million upgrade and remodelling of the throat.

Originally scheduled to run between December 2019 and March 2020, its postponement in December 2018 was exclusively revealed by RAIL after operators serving the UK’s ninth busiest station failed to agree to the highly disruptive access required ( RAIL 867).

NR’s Eastern Region Managing Director Rob McIntosh told RAIL at the time that December 2020 was NR’s preferred date to reschedule the start of the works, in order to coincide with a planned uplift in the Thameslink timetable that will provide passengers with an alternative route from the ECML into central London.

Sources close to the project have since confirmed that these dates are still being targeted.