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Shortly after the news that Angel station will partly close in 2027 thanks to its faulty escalators, it’s been announced that dysfunctional escalators at another major train station are forcing it to shut.
City Thameslink station will close for a whole seven months next year as 10 new escalators get installed. It’ll be out of action from May 17 until late December 2027. Thameslink trains will run as normal, they just won’t call at the station.
All 10 escalators at City Thameslink are 35-years-old and, Thameslink Railways says, have ‘become increasingly unreliable’. They deteriorated even further recently due to flooding. In the seven months that the station is closed, they will all be replaced during the closure.
Network Rail said that a full closure is the ‘quickest and most efficient way to complete the work’. It also warned that there may be some weekends when there will be no trains through the central London section of the Thameslink because of other planned engineering works taking place.
Lucy McAuliffe, Sussex route director for Network Rail, said: ‘This is not a decision we have taken lightly. We have looked long and hard at every possible option and, although none of them are without impact, a single closure is the least disruptive and most efficient way to carry out this vital work.
‘When City Thameslink reopens in December 2027, customers will benefit from completely renewed escalators, designed to provide safer, more dependable and accessible journeys through this important station on our network.’
While City Thameslink is closed, passengers have been advised to use Blackfriars, which is a six-minute walk away from the south entrance of the station and an 11-minute walk from the north entrance. Commuters are advised against using Farringdon as an alternative, as it is already very busy.
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