Network Rail apologises after Croydon sinkhole causes delays for Gatwick trains

Thousands of Gatwick passengers faced travel chaos after trains were cancelled on Sunday afternoon

Network Rail has apologised to passengers after several sinkholes on a South London bridge led to trains being cancelled between London and Gatwick Airport throughout yesterday and the early hours of this morning.

The rail operator revealed that engineers were conducting scheduled works on the train line outside Purley on Sunday, June 14, when they found a number of sinkholes on a bridge which needed “urgent repairs”.

The discovery led to the immediate cancellation of all rail services between Purley and East Croydon, including all trains between London and Gatwick Airport.

The Gatwick Express was also put out of action and did not resume service until the early hours of this morning.

At 2.14am, rail operators including Southern Rail, Thameslink and Gatwick Express simultaneously posted on X that disruption had “ended”, with links for passengers delayed by more than 15 minutes to claim refunds.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “We’re sorry for the disruption passengers faced today on the line between London Bridge and Gatwick Airport.

“During our planned engineering work on the lines outside Purley, engineers discovered that a number of sinkholes had appeared on a bridge south of the station.

“For the safety of passengers, we had to close all lines between Purley and East Croydon, impacting journeys towards Gatwick Airport.

“Over the course of the afternoon our engineers have carried out thorough inspections on the bridge and have worked to plug the sinkholes, allowing trains to safely run again.

“Though trains are now running we do expect there to be disruption into the night so we’re urging passengers to check before travelling.

“We will be accepting today’s [Sunday’s] tickets on tomorrow’s [Monday’s] services due to the disruption today. We understand this made customers’ journeys between London and Gatwick Airport very challenging today, and we apologise for the impact this has had.”

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