Turning around South East - Britain’s most difficult railway?

Network Rail’s South East route, lines in Kent and Sussex through London Bridge and Clapham Junction into Charing Cross, Cannon Street and Victoria, have always been among the most crowded and difficult to operate in the whole country.

The stretch from Greenwich to London Bridge was London’s first railway built on a long 1830s brick viaduct which is still in use.

The lack of tubes in south east London and large number of populous suburbs and prosperous satellite towns soon gave rise to chronic bottlenecks approaching London which railway managers have been grappling with ever since.

In recent years, despite huge (and still incomplete) rebuilding programmes such as replacing slam-door trains in the 1990s, Thameslink and London Bridge, the railway has struggled with ceaseless growth.

Today the railway is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, but what is being done to restore the service and prepare it for the future?

There are huge operational, engineering and logistical challenges, many of which have been unaddressed for decades. Andy Derbyshire, newly appointed as the route’s Chief Operating Officer, outlines his experiences to date and plans for the future.