Sutton Council approves funding for railway upgrade, Doubling trains between Sutton and Belmont by 2026

An ambition to double the number of trains on the railway between Sutton and Belmont stations in south London is progressing after Sutton Council allocated funding to Network Rail to design the upgrade.

Track layout over Google Map

At present, the Belmont area is serviced only by a half-hourly train service and a limited bus service, and the narrow roads restrict the options to increase the bus service. Although not ideal at the moment, the service will get busier in the future thanks to the large London Cancer Hub opening about a 10-minute walk from the station, so Sutton council put in a bid to improve the railway.

Apart from needing capacity for the London Cancer Hub, in terms of levelling up, the nearby Shanklin housing estate is in the top 20% of deprived areas in the country. The lack of reliable public transport is a known factor in making it harder for people to commute to work and hence lift their own income levels.

Although the council’s initial scheme was rejected, a smaller scheme was approved earlier this year.

The railway is single-track for most of its length south of Sutton, and the upgrade will add a turnback siding just to the south of Belmont station. That delivers enough space along the line to be able to handle four trains per hour between Belmont and Sutton, and into central London.

To cover the cost of the upgrade, Sutton Council received £14.1 million from the Levelling Up Fund, and is adding £1.5 million of its own funds to the project, from a mix of local funds and the London Cancer Hub Strategic Investment Pot funding.

Since it was awarded the funding earlier this year, the council has been working with the Department for Transport (DfT), Network Rail and Govia Thameslink Railway to develop the plans.

Although the specifics of the upgrade are still at an early stage, Govia Thameslink Railway has developed a cost-neutral plan to extend the existing service using existing rolling stock and operate the additional two London Victoria to Belmont services.

A meeting of Sutton Council’s Strategy and Resources Committee last Monday has now approved a request for £3 million for Network Rail to design the plans for the railway upgrade.

The intention is that the plans will be approved by the planning committee by March 2024, with construction work starting in April 2024.

Along with the railway track upgrade and turnback siding, Belmont station, which has just one platform, will also get some modest improvements to ensure it can offer step-free access from the street, and maybe fix a perennial flooding problem caused by being at the bottom of a slight slope.

There’s also funding to improve walking and cycling routes between Belmont Station and the London Cancer Hub. That’s needed as while the two are about 10 minutes walk from each other, the route is unclear and uneven so needs some work to make it easier to follow.

Assuming that construction starts next April as planned, then the upgraded railway should be completed in March 2026 and the four trains per hour service introduced during the timetable change that will come into effect in May 2026.

The committee meeting can be watched here – the pertinent section starts at 1 hour 20 minutes into the meeting.