Emergency repairs will bring disruption to to trains through East Croydon station this weekend, National Rail have announced.
That's after "hidden defects" in lines between Redhill and East Croydon were found by an "ultrasonic test train" used by Network Rail to monitor line safety.
The authority said that leaving those defects unfixed could result in a broken rail as they warned passengers who relied on these lined against all but "essential" rail travel on Sunday.
A joint statement from Network Rail, Thameslink and Southern consequently urged rail users to take the East Croydon-Redhill line "only if necessary":
"From around midnight to 2pm on Sunday there will be major changes to train services on the route. There will be an extremely limited train service with only one train every 90 minutes between London and Brighton, via Gatwick Airport. Challenges with bus driver availability due to COVID and major engineering work on other routes also means only a very limited replacement bus service will run between Redhill and East Croydon.
"Tickets will be accepted on Metrobus route 100 between Redhill and Gatwick Airport and on TfL bus services between Redhill and East Croydon. For further travel advice, visit Southern or Thameslink’s websites," the statement read.
📢 Due to late notice engineering work taking place in the Purley area, buses will replace trains from midnight until 11am on Sunday 15 August.
— Thameslink (@TLRailUK) August 11, 2021
❗️ We strongly advise you to travel after 2pm if you're travelling between London / Croydon and Gatwick / Sussex Coast.
Network Rail and Govia Thameslink Railway’s joint network operations director, Mike Paterson, added the following words: "We’re really sorry to be causing such disruption this Sunday, especially with engineering work elsewhere on our railway at Horsham.
"Our advice is to travel only if you absolutely have to while the work is taking place on Sunday morning, as we simply do not have the resources to run enough buses to carry everyone safely.
"We’ve got one line open, which will allow a very limited train service to run, but nowhere near what we would need to carry the normal number of passengers to the beach on a Sunday morning. Our team has tried to find different ways of getting this job done but we can’t put it off any longer and have to take this action now."
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