Charing Cross station to be hit by three-weeks summer closure warns Southeastern

"During the 22-day closure, Southeastern trains into central London will continue to run, but many trains will be diverted to alternative terminals. Most services that would normally use Charing Cross will instead run to London Victoria, London Cannon Street or London Blackfriars, with some trains terminating at London Bridge."

"The existing track, last renewed in the early 1990s, has become increasingly unreliable and now requires heavy maintenance to keep services running safely. South Eastern Railway says that in recent years, faults on the approaches to Charing Cross alone have caused hundreds of hours of delays, and without intervention, these problems would continue to worsen."

"South Eastern Railway says that concentrating the work into a single 22-day summer closure avoids the need for more than a year of weekend shutdowns, which would have closed the line for around 120 days in total."

Charing Cross and Waterloo East stations will close from July 26 to August 16, 2026, for a major engineering programme. During this period, Southeastern trains will be diverted to alternative terminals including Victoria, Cannon Street, Blackfriars, and London Bridge. Engineers will replace approximately 1,800 metres of track that has not been renewed since the early 1990s and has become increasingly unreliable. The closure also enables drainage improvements at Waterloo East and structural repairs to Hungerford Bridge. This concentrated 22-day summer closure is more efficient than spreading work across more than a year of weekend shutdowns, which would total around 120 days of closures.

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