TWO thirds of the £1billion redeveloped London Bridge station opened for business yesterday.

But despite the fanfare the head of Network Rail said the landmark project would not meet demand in the long term.

The redeveloped station will enable passengers to access all platforms from one level for the first time. Once complete, the concourse will be bigger than the pitch at Wembley Stadium.

But Network Rail (NR) chief Mark Carne, speaking at the opening of the new development, said he was not confident it would meet the needs of passengers in the future as the number of people using the station swells.

"There's no doubt at all that this is not going to meet the demand for 50 years. As the passenger demand continues to grow, we will need to continue to invest and there will need to be significant investment in the railways over the next 20 years just to keep pace."

Yesterday passengers broadly gave the new station the thumbs up. But the station will face a stiffer test this morning as thousands return to work after the Bank Holiday weekend.

Mr Carne said there had been a "staggering" growth in passenger numbers on services that pass through London Bridge of 5 per cent to 6 per cent every year.

He said: "It's a constant challenge to keep pace with demand but that's a problem of success and I think Britain's railways are a huge success story."

Over the weekend, the project's construction site was moved away from the Southern and future Thameslink platforms to focus on the north of the station, used by Southeastern.

Trains into Charing Cross have now begun calling at London Bridge for the first time since January 2015, but Cannon Street trains stopped serving the station on Friday and will not resume until January 2018.

The south London station has suffered incidents of severe overcrowding since work began four years ago. Reconfiguring the complex track layout around the station has exacerbated the impact of any delays.

NR, which owns and operates Britain's railway tracks, signals and busiest stations, including London Bridge, said the improvements will allow up to 24 Thameslink trains an hour to run through the capital - equivalent to one every two to three minutes - compared with just eight previously.

The station's transformation is part of a £7 billion programme to improve the Thameslink network for people travelling across London. It was originally called Thameslink 2000, but, after series of delays, the project is now expected to be completed in 2018.

Despite the opening Sussex passengers will see little change in their service to London Bridge until the project has been completed in early 2018.

From early 2018, the station will have 65 per cent increased capacity with 15 new extra-long platforms, capable of accommodating larger trains.

This will see up to 24 services per hour in what project bosses have described as being a London Underground like frequency.

AWESOME, AMAZING, IMPRESSIVE - THE PASSENGERS’ VERDICT

PASSENGERS took to Twitter to give their verdict on London Bridge Station.

Stian Reimers said: “Well this is impressive and actually looks like the CG images we’ve been tantalised with for years.”

Dami Agunbiade: “Check out the new concourse at London Bridge. The station looks awesome.”

Chris Silvester: “Verdict on the new London Bridge. Not bad. not bad at all.”

Sarah Samuel: “New London Bridge concourse is flippin’ great – a much-needed improvement to overcrowded station.”

Tim Rich: “Used impressive new @networkrail concourse at London Bridge today. Needs good station maps/graphics and more ticket machines.”

Aitrix: “The new London Bridge is mightily impressive. I’m already perplexed how we coped without the space and capacity until now.”

Jessica Carpani: “Woah, hold up, London Bridge is back up and running? And it is fabulous. Good job guys.”

Will Bains: “Boring train tweet alert. The new London Bridge concourse looks amazing, what a transformation.”

Matt W: “Insane labyrinth arranged to reach platforms at London Bridge today, stay away people!”

James Hollands: “So the new London Bridge concourse has opened – all we need now is some trains to service it.”