Thameslink: Borough Market work brought forward

It has been agreed that work on widening the existing Borough Market viaduct and constructing a parallel viaduct will now begin at the end of next year. This is ahead of the already announced two Thameslink programme phases.

The Borough bridges, which will run each side of the Globe pub, are now scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011 in time for the expected rise in visitors during the Olympic Games in 2012.

By undertaking the construction early Thameslink says that the market can remain open throughout the work. Thameslink also believes that bringing the work forward removes uncertainty and enables work to be integrated with other developments including the 'Shard of Glass'.
 
Work on extending Blackfriars Station with covered platforms spanning the river will begin early in 2009. This will see a ticket office and station entrance built on Bankside near Tate Modern and opened in time for the 2012 Olympic year.

As already announced, London Bridge trackwork is being postponed until 2013 to avoid any disruption during the Olympics.

Once the track bottlenecks at Blackfriars and Borough have been removed it is intended to run direct north-south trains between 7am and 9am which should remove pressure on the Underground.