Closure of London Victoria on New Year's Eve

[GodAtum]

Very concerning as I'm sure millions of people that travel to watch the London fireworks use Victoria. Looks like there will be major overcrowding at London Bridge and people will find it physically impossible to get home.

 

[robbeech]

Picking interesting times to do things isn’t new to the railway. EMT have picked December to February to close and refurbish the waiting rooms at Leicester. Doesn’t paint dry faster when it’s warm anyway?

 

[Clip]

Very concerning as I'm sure millions of people that travel to watch the London fireworks use Victoria. Looks like there will be major overcrowding at London Bridge and people will find it physically impossible to get home.

Possibly some hyperbole here i think given that millions do indeed go see the fireworks however there will not be millions who use Victoria as they dont even get those numbers daily.

 

[Ianno87]

Something like 100,000 tickets are made available to the fireworks, and only a proportion of these would be travelling via Victoria.

So not "... millions of people that travel to watch the London fireworks use Victoria."

Something basic crowd control *should* be able to handle.

Lucky that London Bridge has just had a significant, high capacity upgrade.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Remind me *not* to travel up to London on New Year's Eve...

 

[Mojo]

Something like 100,000 tickets are made available to the fireworks, and only a proportion of these would be travelling via Victoria.

More people go to London to watch the fireworks from areas outside the official viewing area than have a ticket to go into the official viewing area.

Similarly, a great number go nowhere near the firework displays from the river!

 

[Mag_seven]

I'm sure millions of people

"millions" - are you sure?

 

[hwl]

Very concerning as I'm sure millions of people that travel to watch the London fireworks use Victoria. Looks like there will be major overcrowding at London Bridge and people will find it physically impossible to get home.

P9 - 19 are closed from the beginning of Sunday 23rd to early Wednesday 2nd Jan inclusive for the replacement of Battersea Pier Jn. It isn't just closed on NYE.
On a Monday evening all the trains on the Sussex side would have departed before the fireworks are over and the late services are all Thameslink from London Bridge...

 

[30907]

P9 - 19 are closed from the beginning of Sunday 23rd to early Wednesday 2nd Jan inclusive for the replacement of Battersea Pier Jn. It isn't just closed on NYE.
On a Monday evening all the trains on the Sussex side would have departed before the fireworks are over and the late services are all Thameslink from London Bridge...

Special services normally run early on New Year's Day. I imagine that people coming into London that evening will return by the way they came.

 

[tsr]

P9 - 19 are closed from the beginning of Sunday 23rd to early Wednesday 2nd Jan inclusive for the replacement of Battersea Pier Jn. It isn't just closed on NYE.
On a Monday evening all the trains on the Sussex side would have departed before the fireworks are over and the late services are all Thameslink from London Bridge...

Not quite.

GTR and their predecessors have usually operated extra trains from Victoria to accommodate passengers travelling home from the New Year fireworks. These have typically been towards the busiest South London Metro routes and on the Brighton Mainline.

This has applied both before and after the recent cutbacks to Sunday-Thursday overnight trains.

Most passengers will not wish to head as far as London Bridge so I agree it is somewhat concerning that the Sussex side of Victoria is basically completely closed. It risks putting major pressure on last trains out of Waterloo, in particular.

One can only hope that crowd control plans have evolved sufficiently to accommodate this. There are major event plans in place, but I haven’t seen the bulk of them, so I can only hope everyone has worked together properly on this one. It may not be a case of millions of passengers, but ten thousand inconvenienced drunk people at 2am are not going to make for an enjoyable experience...

 

[GodAtum]

Special services normally run early on New Year's Day. I imagine that people coming into London that evening will return by the way they came.

The whole to Victoria station is closed I think, ie no Southern trains in or out.

 

[greyman42]

The whole to Victoria station is closed I think, ie no Southern trains in or out.

What about Gatwick Express?

 

[Bookd]

Isn't it the case that SWR are threatened with a strike on NYE which will also cause chaos at Waterloo?

 

[30907]

The whole to Victoria station is closed I think, ie no Southern trains in or out.

Quite so. So as they can't get there in the first place, they will go home from whatever station they arrived at. Blackfriars NR is also closed BTW

 

[43096]

Picking interesting times to do things isn’t new to the railway.

But doing it over Christmas/new Year is far better than during an ordinary week as there are far fewer people travelling than normal - fireworks or not. Do you have a better plan?

 

[Mag_seven]

At least those in London have some sort of service for the new years eve celebrations - the rest of the country has nowt!