Pregnant commuter forced to sit on floor amid delays at revamped London Bridge

Uncomfortable: Liz Jaques, six months pregnant, was forced to sit on the floor as her train was delayed by an hour
Liz Jaques
Tom Powell31 August 2016

Commuters today suffered delays of up to 90 minutes coming into London from the south east after a points failure on the tracks.

A signalling problem just outside London Bridge station led to severe delays on several services.

It comes after complaints were made about narrow platforms at the newly refurbished London Bridge station, two thirds of which were unveiled on Monday.

Among those held up was Liz Jaques, 33, who is six months pregnant. She was forced to sit on the floor for most of her 2 hour-long journey from High Brooms to Charring Cross due to a lack of available seats.

Ms Jaques, who is Head of Communications at Newsworks, told the Standard: "We were delayed by over 50 minutes which is so annoying when you pay nearly £4,500 for a season ticket.

"I had to spent the whole journey sat on the floor as the train was so busy and nobody wanted to give me a seat, which got very uncomfortable.

"I will definitely be claiming a refund for the delay," she added.

Architect Ed Ashby, who was over an hour delayed traveling from Ladywell to Waterloo East, told the Standard: "I started to imagine just how far I could have got in the same time if I'd been walking or on my bike.

"Luckily I didn't have an important meeting as I would be really stressed and annoyed if I did.

"I know they offer refunds but it's the lost work, missed meetings and stress caused that is a real problem."

A spokesman at Southeastern said: “A signalling problem is causing delays of up to 20 minutes to and from London Charing Cross.

"Network Rail engineers are on site, we are sorry for any delays experienced this morning and encourage passengers to check before they travel. Passengers delayed 30 minutes or more can claim Delay Repay compensation.”

Southeastern also warned pasengers via Twitter that Charing Cross trains will be extremely busy until Friday when Cannon St reopens.

"If you can, consider travelling earlier or after 0930," one tweet read.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail said the delays were due to a points failure.

A joint statement from Network Rail and Southeastern released later in the day said: “We are very sorry for the delays passengers experienced this morning due to signalling problems between Lewisham and London Charing Cross. Both of these issues have been fixed by Network Rail engineers, however there are still delays to services as they recover."

Points are sections of track that move, acting as junctions and allowing trains to move from one line to another.

Earlier, travellers had complained that the newly designed platforms are “too skinny”.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail said: “London Bridge is the fourth busiest station in Britain and is often extremely busy at rush hour.

“The initial response we have had to the new concourse has been overwhelmingly positive. “

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