On weekdays and Saturdays a replacement bus service will operate every 20 minutes with frequency dropping to just two buses an hour on Sundays.
TfL says any passengers will be able to travel through zone 1 by Tube or national rail services at no extra cost providing they travel from a Tube or national rail station near their usual London Overground station.
Ian Brown, the Managing Director of TfL London Rail, said: “We apologise to passengers for this inconvenience and are doing all we can to minimise the disruption caused. This was one of the most neglected railways in the UK when we took it over two years ago and these are essential works that will help us unlock the true potential of the London Overground network, which is to offer a far more frequent Metro-style turn up and go service.
“We have to close this part of the line for this amount of time because of the nature of the work. Large amounts of material will have to be moved around for the signalling and track upgrades, which means if we were to restrict the work to weekends and then have to restore the railway to working order each Monday morning, the disruption would be over a much longer period.”
TfL says when the work is completed passengers will benefit from more frequent services with longer trains with services running four times per hour all day every day from Richmond and Clapham Junction to Stratford, six trains per hour between Willesden Junction and Camden Road and eight trains per hour between Camden Road and Stratford.
Passengers are also being advised that the suspension will mean not all of the trains from Richmond and Clapham Junction will be able to run through to Gospel Oak and will have to stop at Willesden Junction to take advantage of the turnaround facilities there.
In the morning and evening peak two trains per hour from Clapham Junction and two trains per hour from Richmond will carry on to Gospel Oak, whilst the other one train per hour from Richmond and one train per hour from Clapham Junction will terminate and start at Willesden Junction.
There will also be one extra train during the busiest hour of the peak between Willesden Junction and Richmond. The off peak service times remain unaffected.
