London Bridge Rebuilding: Revised Changes to Sevenoaks trains 2015-2016
Trains to and from Charing Cross will not be able to stop at London Bridge during the first phase of the rebuilding of the Southeastern side of London Bridge – from January 2015 to August 2016. This affects trains from and to Sevenoaks and Dunton Green. Southeastern have now published revised timetables from January 2015.
Update 20 October: Southeastern have withdrawn the timetables from their website, saying that they were “draft”. New (final?) timetables are now promised in November.
Update 15 November: Final timetables have now been published. There is a new SRTA post with our definitive analysis of what this means for Sevenoaks.
The following is mainly for historical and comparative purposes
We have already published our comments on the revised proposals and our Vice-Chairman has spoken about it on BBC Radio Kent. This post gives a detailed factual note of the changes.
The main changes suggested so far which affect Sevenoaks and Dunton Green are that some Charing Cross trains will be diverted to Cannon Street, and some Cannon Street trains will be diverted to Charing Cross. The detail is quite complicated.
Weekday, early morning
The 0616 now goes to Cannon Street, not Charing Cross, as well as the 0611 (now timed at 0610). This still leaves a gap of 37 minutes before the next Cannon Street service at 0653. Worse, it now creates a gap of 41 minutes between Charing Cross services (at 0549 and 0630).
Weekday, morning peak (changes in in bold, changes from original proposal in bold italics)
Train time from Sevenoaks |
Destinations |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0703 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Not stopping at London Bridge |
| 0711 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Fast to Waterloo East as usual |
| 0717 | London Bridge, Cannon Street | Slow service – No change |
| 0723 | London Bridge, Cannon Street | Destination changed – will continue to stop at London Bridge. |
| 0728 | London Bridge, Cannon Street | No change |
| 0732 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Fast to Waterloo East as usual |
| 0737 | London Bridge, Cannon Street | Slow service – No change |
| 0743 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Not stopping at London Bridge |
| 0747 | London Bridge, Cannon Street | No change (Restored to usual destination in revised proposals) |
| 0751 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Fast to Waterloo East as usual |
| 0757 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Slow service. Destination changed – not stopping at London Bridge |
| 0803 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Not stopping at London Bridge |
| 0808 | London Bridge, Cannon Street | No change |
| 0812 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Fast to Waterloo East as usual |
| 0817 | London Bridge, Cannon Street | Slow service – No change |
| 0823 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Not stopping at London Bridge (Restored to usual destination in revised proposals) |
| 0827 | London Bridge, Cannon Street | No change (Restored to usual destination in revised proposals) |
| 0831 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | No change (Service restored in revised proposals) |
| 0837 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Slow service. Not stopping at London Bridge |
| 0847 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Not stopping at London Bridge |
| 0851 | Waterloo East, Charing Cross | Not stopping at London Bridge |
| 0856 | London Bridge, Cannon Street | No change |
Weekday, daytime service
The fast trains running between London and Tunbridge Wells (xx14 and xx19 from Sevenoaks, xx00 and xx30 from London) will operate to and from Cannon Street calling at London Bridge.
The other fast trains (xx19, xx29, xx49 and xx59 from Sevenoaks, xx10, xx15, xx40 and xx45 from London) will continue to operate to Waterloo East and Charing Cross, but will not stop at London Bridge
Weekday, evening peak
No changes are currently proposed to Sevenoaks services in the evening peak. The SRTA Trains Group considers that this will mean that most people who normally catch the Tunbridge Wells services at Platform 5 at London Bridge will catch services from Cannon Street from Platform 2 – adding to the existing overcrowding on these trains.
Weekday, evening post-peak
The current proposal is that Tunbridge Wells services (xx14 and xx44 from Sevenoaks, xx00 and xx30 from London) are diverted to Cannon Street, calling at London Bridge. Other trains would continue to go to Charing Cross but would not stop at London Bridge.
The last trains will be from Charing Cross at 2345 (fast) and 0015 (slow); these trains will call at Waterloo East, then at Cannon Street (at 0001 and 0029 respectively), and then at London Bridge (at 0005 and 0033). The detour via Cannon Street adds time to the journey; the last direct trains are at 2340 from Charing Cross (not stopping at London Bridge) and 2333 from Cannon Street.
Saturdays
The Saturday service will be similar to the weekday off-peak services.
Sundays
All Sunday services will go to and from London Bridge and Cannon Street. There will be no services to Charing Cross and Waterloo East. (It’s not yet clear whether Cannon Street Underground will be open or whether rail tickets will be valid through to Embankment.) Fast services from Sevenoaks at xx00, xx21, xx30 and xx51 and from Cannon Street at xx10, xx27, xx40 and xx57. Last fast train from Cannon Street at 2340 with a slow train at 0001.
Note: This is an update of a previous analysis of the original Southeastern proposals.
Given the current timetable for the 2015/16 disruptions, I have noticed that there will be no trains to Charing Cross on a Sunday. Does this mean that I will have to pay additional money to travel from another station over to Charing Cross because I only have the ‘Sevenoaks to London Terminals’ season ticket, or are the train companies going to be reimbursing people for this? I understand improvement works need to take place, but the train times already always run behind time, let alone with highly reduced services for 3 years along with higher train fares!
We’ve not been able to get a definitive answer to this important question. The latest statement (July) from Southeastern says:
However no agreement with TFL seems to have been reached, and there seems to be a dispute about which company pays. So at the moment not only do you have to pay a tube fare if trains are diverted to Cannon Street on Sunday but you may also find the tube station closed.
Hi
I currently live in Forest Hill but have always intended to move out to Sevenoaks. However, I am concerned that the Thameslink programme will render my commute into the City unbearable. Do you have any advice as I feel that I might have to consider moving elsewhere, which is not ideal.
Very grateful for any your assistance.
Kind Regards,
Owen
Owen
In normal times Sevenoaks has a good commuter service to Cannon Street – three trains an hour fast from Sevenoaks to London Bridge and Cannon Street, and three other fast trains to London Bridge (which go on to Charing Cross). The fast Cannon Street trains can be full though.
The next 18 months will be rough. Charing Cross trains will not stop at London Bridge, so everyone travelling to London Bridge will have to cram onto the Cannon Street trains alone. There will also be some disruption from time to time due to engineering works overrunning or failing in live operation.
However after that things will get better for Cannon Street passengers – Cannon Street trains will not stop at London Bridge from September 2016 to the beginning of 2018, and so will be less crowded. And when the London Bridge rebuilding is complete in 2018 trains should become more reliable due to the extra capacity and the separation of conflicting services which will have been accomplished.
In short if you move now you’ll have a rough 18 months, but it will then be better. If you move in 2016 you should be OK.