Easter 2015: fewer Sevenoaks trains, and diversions to Victoria
Southeastern have today announced an “amended” (ie reduced) timetable for the Easter period – Good Friday 3 April 2015 to Easter Monday 6 April 2015 inclusive. On all four days there will be just 2 fast trains an hour from Sevenoaks (compared to at least 4 normally), and they will all go to Victoria.
Fast trains will depart from Sevenoaks at xx23 and xx53 (xx24 and xx52 on Easter Sunday).
Yet again Southeastern have decided to divert Hastings services at Tonbridge and run them via Redhill and East Croydon into the Southern side of London Bridge. This reduces the fast trains coming through Sevenoaks. It is not clear why most Hastings passengers would want to go to London Bridge as there will be no services to Charing Cross, Waterloo East, Cannon Street or outbound from the Southeastern side of London Bridge.
It is also unclear why the Saturday service through Sevenoaks has been reduced from six to two. Diverting the Hastings trains should only reduce it to four. As so often, Southeastern seem to be using the excuse of weekend engineering works to cut services to the bone and save costs – even though they are compensated by Network Rail for engineering work. We wait to see whether they will cut train lengths as well.
It is possible that there will be other engineering work affecting Sevenoaks at the Easter Weekend: although Network Rail reportedly tell Southeastern about engineering work 12 weeks in advance, Southeastern often like to keep it a secret until closer to the time: as of today, the Engineering Work page on their website only goes up to the weekend of 7-8 March, even though Network Rail will have told them of all work up to 10 May.
This article is written on the basis of the best available information at the time, but travellers should check the times and routes of their journeys themselves closer to the time.
Archived versions of the web pages referenced are here and here.
So when exactly should the work be done? Holiday periods typically see less people travelling, especially commuters. Would you rather it be done during a normal working day?
See some common sense!
For Sevenoaks travellers the work is being done at commuter times too – that’s why many of our members are having to stand.
The questions we raise are why the service needs to be cut by two-thirds, why Hastings travellers are delivered to London Bridge where there are no other services, and why passengers don’t get any of the compensation that Network Rail have to pay Southeastern.
I suppose Southeastern Ltd assume that Sevenoaks passengers could also catch the Victoria to Otford services and change there for a connecting Sevenoaks train (if it’s running). At least the trains that are running during this period are all going to the same London terminal rather than one going to Victoria and the other train to Cannon Street, which has been happening on a couple of Sundays recently.
A good point.
However on the recent Sundays that there were no trains at all at Sevenoaks there was only one bus an hour from Sevenoaks to Otford – even though it was being served both by its normal Sunday service and by diverted Cannon Street to Ashford trains. Another example of the lack of joined up thinking!