Jun 23, 2016 04:53 BST Severe weather - Start your journey home early today

Severe Disruption due to flooding

Extreme weather conditions have meant that Southern services are severely disrupted today. The forecast is for a return of heavy rain in places on the Southern network from 3pm. As a result, we are advising you to start your journey home early.

Please travel via alternative routes wherever you can, as services will be severely reduced into the afternoon, disruption is expected for the rest of the day.

The heavy rain we've had overnight flooded the line at Wandsworth Common and earlier today all lines were blocked. Network Rail who maintain the track we run our trains on are on site and have assessed the situation and have been able to reopen two lines to allow some trains to run. Network Rail continue to work on reopening the remaining lines however we're planning around having these lines blocked throughout the evening.

Wandsworth Common and Battersea Park stations will not be served for the remainder of the day.

With two of the four lines open we are running an extremely limited Southern and Gatwick Express service to and from Victoria. This is affecting all Southern routes.

Owing to the severity of the disruption expected on our network we strongly advise customers to seek alternative options to get to your destination. There are a number of other incidents also affecting our route including flooding blocking the line from Redhill to Tonbridge, flooding near Imperial Wharf (Milton Keynes Route) and earlier overrunning engineering work between Three Bridges and .- Services between Clapham Junction- Milton Keynes are suspended for the rest of the day

- Services between Clapham Junction- Milton Keynes are suspended for the rest of the day

- Victoria to Brighton services are cancelled. Passengers are advised to take the Gatwick Express from Victoria and change at East Croydon, or take Southern servcies to Gatwick, East Croydon or and change there for services to Brighton.

- Gatwick Express services will call additionally at Clapham Junction and East Croydon but will only run between London and Gatwick with a half hourly frequency.

- We are aiming to run our mainline services. Those towards Ore, Eastbourne, Littlehampton, Portsmouth, Bognor Regis and Southampton.

- Our London/Metro service will be significantly reduced with particular impact on trains towards Sutton.

For more detail please visit our live running information page.

Ticket Acceptance Arrangements:

• will allow Southern ticket holders to use their services on all routes. • Southern tickets from Victoria are accepted on Gatwick Express services • will accept Southern tickets on all reasonable routes. • are accepting Southern tickets between Euston and Milton Keynes Central • will accept Southern tickets on all reasonable routes but have also been affected by the adverse weather. • will allow Southern ticket holders to travel on their services. • Customers are advised not to use as an alternative as their services have been severely affected by the adverse weather. • Metro bus will accept Southern tickets between Redhill and Horsham via Three Bridges and East Grinstead and Three Bridges. • Brighton & Hove buses will accept Southern tickets holders between Brighton and Shoreham & between Brighton and Eastbourne.

Passengers are advised to please check before travel and confirm your journey information at as near to departure time as possible, information will be updated as problems become known.

For more information, contact the press office on 0203 750 2031.

Govia Thameslink Railway

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) operates Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern and Gatwick Express services as follows:

• Thameslink – cross-London services between Bedford/Peterborough/Cambridge and Brighton/Horsham/Littlehampton/East Grinstead, and between Luton/St Albans and Sutton/Wimbledon/Rainham; plus services between London and Sevenoaks • Great Northern – services between London and Welwyn, Hertford, Peterborough, Cambridge and King’s Lynn • Southern – services between London and the Sussex coast (Brighton, Worthing, Eastbourne, Bognor Regis, Hastings) and parts of Surrey, Kent and Hampshire (Ashford International, Southampton, Portsmouth) • Gatwick Express – fast, non-stop direct services between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria (currently suspended during the pandemic) www.southernrailway.com, www.thameslinkrailway.com, www.gatwickexpres s.com, www.greatnorthernrail.com