Ding Dong Merrily in Borough Green and Otford!
In early December our Borough Green correspondent Karen Harding reported that the fast direct services from Ashford via Maidstone East, Borough Green and Otford to the City, leaving Borough Green at 06.30 and 07:10, had disappeared from the timetable for the week commencing 5 January.
Karen has relentlessly pursued Southeastern about this, taking the campaign to the “Texts, Tweets and Posts” section in the Evening Standard.
She has now reported success! Southeastern finally responded to the Evening Standard saying that the trains would operate and that there had been a “data issue” with the timetables on the National Rail Enquiries website.
We are glad to say that the trains are now on the national timetable feed (see them live or the 31 December snapshot) although, as previously announced, they will only go as far as Blackfriars.
The times of these trains change on 12 January with the introduction of a new timetable. The first train is 10 minutes earlier at 0619 from Borough Green. There is also an additional train at 0859 from Borough Green getting to Blackfriars at 0953 (too late for most commuters, but too early for off-peak fares), and an additional train from Blackfriars to Borough Green at 1904. These are also on the national timetable feed (!) – see them live or the 31 December snapshot.
Well done Karen!
In relation to the 7:22 Otford train from Ashford to Blackfriars as mentioned above it should be worth noting that this train has shrunk in size from 12 coaches to 6 coaches which has made things very uncomfortable to say the least.
It wasn’t a 12 coach train but I believe it was a 8 coach train (although I never actually counted!). I think it’s because SE trains are now using the SE liveried rolling stock which invariably consist of 6 coaches. Previously this service used the Thameslink rolling stock which was longer and more spacious. We should press to have the longer rolling stock reinstated – it may alleviate some of the additional pressure on commuters affected by the London Bridge works having to seek alternative routes.