Southeastern, one of the country’s biggest and busiest rail operators, has published the details of its June timetable change for customers across South East London, Kent and East Sussex.
As part of its plan to build a better, more reliable and sustainable railway, Southeastern’s updated timetable will help more than 90,000 customers each day by:
- Improving the spacing between services, meaning less time waiting on platforms
- Improving punctuality
- Adding more carriages and services for its busiest trains and routes on both peak and off-peak services to reduce crowding
The new timetable, starting on Sunday 2 June, supports Southeastern’s growing railway, which provided over 125 million journeys in the last year – a year-on-year increase of 9% with the busiest days now exceeding 500,000 journeys per day across the network.
Scott Brightwell, Southeastern, said: “We know how important the railway is to South East London, Kent and Sussex, and that is why we are continually listening to our customers and analysing travel data to update our timetable accordingly.
“This open approach to building a better, more reliable and sustainable railway has seen the number of customers travelling with us continuing to increase, with some weekdays seeing over half a million journeys across our network, alongside a 9% increase year on year.
“We also know our timetable is our promise to our customers. The changes we will make this year are all aimed at providing more consistent and repeatable departure times, increasing capacity where it is needed while also continuing to provide a reliable, low-cancellation railway.
“We look forward to sharing more details before the timetable changes on 2 June but would encourage customers to make use of the information on our website and in our app and understand how the new timetable may affect their journey.”
The improvements include:
Southeastern Metro Services
- There’s a better spread of trains between Abbey Wood and Dartford for connections to the Elizabeth Line
- Four trains per hour all day to and from Albany Park
- Better spacing of trains on the Greenwich & Woolwich lines to London Bridge
- Late evening services on Saturdays to the Bexleyheath line now run from Charing Cross instead of from Cannon Street
- Services between Victoria and Dartford are extended to Gravesend, calling at Greenhithe, providing a direct link to Denmark Hill for Kings College and Maudsley Hospitals and giving a direct interchange at Gravesend to highspeed services
- More evening peak services to Bromley North
Southeastern Main Line services
- Two additional evening peak services from Charing Cross to Ashford via Maidstone East providing a half-hourly service from 16.29 to 18.29
- One Main Line service per hour will call at Thanet Parkway – doubling the off-peak service frequency while also providing a half-hourly highspeed service to St Pancras International (via a change at Ashford International)
- Medway Valley Line services are retimed to improve connections at Paddock Wood and Strood
- Three extra services from Tunbridge Wells to Charing Cross on weekdays between 0900 and 1030 – providing additional capacity for those who don’t travel during the morning peak
- Extra Saturday morning service between Tunbridge Wells and Charing Cross
- Additional late-night weekend services to support Dreamland in Margate’s spring and summer activities
Southeastern highspeed services
- Until 8 September, some trains to and from the coast will be longer to provide more space at busier times
- Some departure times have changed slightly
- No material changes to stopping patterns or service frequencies
For more detailed information, including a line-by-line summary and timetables, click here.
From Saturday 1 June to Sunday 11 August, the 175-year-old Blackheath tunnel between Blackheath and Charlton will close as Network Rail begins £10m of essential repairs.
During this time, Dartford to Cannon Street services via Charlton and Blackheath will run via Greenwich for the DLR, with additional stops at Westcombe Park, Maze Hill, Greenwich and Deptford. More detailed information is available here.
