London Bridge Station : What the Station would look like by 2018 by Network Rail

According to the Office of Rail Regulation, London Bridge is the fourth busiest station in London – with more than 51 million commuters using it each year.

With the growing number of commuters travelling via London Bridge, ideas have been pushed forward to re-develop the station. Network rail carried out a survey which found that 97% of people agreed that the station was in need of investment and the planned work by Network Rail is intended to ‘create a bigger and better station for passengers’

The construction already taking place at London Bridge is part of ‘Phase 2’ of the plans for the ‘Thames link Upgrade.’ The re-development work  began in 2013 and is expected to be completed by 2018. Part of the redevelopment is to introduce 18 trains an hour for its passengers. As a result of these planned redevelopments, Network Rail have outlined that in the mean time London Bridge station will schedule fewer trains in order to continue with ‘Phase 2.’

But due to the planned redevelopment at London Bridge has meant that passengers at London Bridge Station have faced many delays. RMT Leader Mike Cash wrote to Network Rail bosses stating that “the current situation (at London Bridge)must not be allowed to continue and the RMT is demanding that preventative measures are put into place without delay,”

One of the main reasons for the redevelopment is to ‘improve journeys for everyone who uses it (London Bridge Station) and stop the issues with crowding’ says Network Rail.

Policies on expanding and improving the rail found on the Department for Transport government website  says that there will be economical benefits from the re-development such as the likelihood of creating up to 2000 jobs across the UK.