Southeastern have today notified us about their final proposals for the timetable from late August 2016. In the next phase of the London Bridge rebuilding, trains to and from Charing Cross will be able to stop at London Bridge, but trains to and from Cannon Street will not. So, as expected, the timetable is largely based on the pre-2015 service pattern. But there are a number of unexpected changes and some loose ends to tie up.
The main changes are that:
- most off-peak trains between London and Tunbridge Wells revert to going to Charing Cross. That restores the six trains an hour pattern between Charing Cross and Sevenoaks, but it means that getting to and from Cannon Street off-peak could be more difficult.
- in the morning peak there’s a new train from Sevenoaks to Charing Cross at around 0556.
- in the morning peak the 0723 from Sevenoaks reverts to Charing Cross and will no longer be diverted to Cannon Street.
- in the evening peak the 1657 from Charing Cross now leaves at 1650.
- in the evening peak there is some variation in the stopping pattern from Charing Cross between 1830 and 1845: the 1832 and 1845 trains from Charing Cross towards Tunbridge Wells will stop at Orpington rather than Chelsfield, and the 1840 from Charing Cross will stop at Chelsfield not Orpington. That probably breaks the connection from the 1832 from Charing Cross onto the slow train to Dunton Green – it was same-platform at Chelsfield but changing platforms at Orpington in 3 minutes or less could be a challenge for even the fittest commuter.
- in the evening off-peak the London to Tunbridge Wells trains will continue to run from Cannon Street at 1933 and 2003, before changing to run from Charing Cross from 2030 onwards. So the 1940, 1945 and 2010 trains from Charing Cross could become even more crowded as they will also pick up passengers at London Bridge.
Although trains to and from Charing Cross will normally be stopping at London Bridge, this will not apply to trains from Charing Cross in the morning peak, or to trains to Charing Cross in the evening peak. That will affect Sevenoaks travellers returning home from night work or going to evening entertainment in the Borough Market or Shad Thames areas. Update 31 May: In response to our questions, Southeastern have explained that this is because of a performance risk due to running all the counter-flow trains over a single line. They have agreed to review this in the light of early experience with the new timetable.
There is a statement that some trains will be lengthened, but there is no detail yet on which these are.
There is said to be no “significant” changes to services to the Maidstone East line.
There’s no news about ticket acceptance on TfL services. The current arrangements expire in August 2016. There might be changes because normal rail service patterns are different – although we’ve always considered that the arrangements should go more widely to encourage people to find alternative journey routes that suit them and reduce congestion for the rest of us at the same time. It’s a pity that Southeastern have again left ticket acceptance as a secondary issue – while it’s not part of running trains it’s an essential part of getting customers to where they want to go. Update 31 May: In response to our questions, Southeastern have now confirmed that there will be no changes to current ticket acceptance arrangements.
Finally the switch-over to the new service will involve six days of significant disruption. On Saturday 27 August and Sunday 28 August there will be no trains to Charing Cross or Cannon Street. Then, from Monday 29 August to Thursday 1 September, there will be no trains to Cannon Street. That includes three normal working days – and days in which many people will be returning from their summer holidays. It will not be a good time to return to work. Further details are here.
We’ve raised a number of issues with Southeastern about these points, and will let you know when we hear more. In the meantime we would welcome your views and comments please!
Updated 31 May with further information received from Southeastern in response to our questions.
Changing from the Fast to Slow trains at Orpington or Chelsfield in the evening peak sounds like a concern for Dunton Green commuters.
@paul For some services changing at Chelsfield is what Dunton Greeners do now. On the 1832 the slow train should be just 3 minutes behind the fast at Chelsfield, it is the same platform, and the slow train cannot approach Chelsfield until the fast train has left. Commuters can literally just step off the train, count to 180, and step on to the next train. At Orpington it’s different – the slow trains are on a different platform so you need to go through the tunnel or over the bridge; and the slow train would typically close its doors and depart as soon as the fast train has left the next section.
I wouldn’t worry, the slow train is never just 3 minutes behind the fast one !
Has any indication been given as to when the timetable will be available for the public to view?
The half hour gap in Cannon Street services looks a long one with the 7:23 going to Charing Cross (which a lot of Sevenoaks and Tonbridge commuters will currently use for the chance of a seat). I can imagine the 7:28 is going to be struggling to cope capacity wise. The obvious answer would be to stop the intervening 6:59 from High Brooms at Sevenoaks.
@keith No indication yet. Southeastern have given us a textual list of changes today without full timetables. We assume that the next stage will be put the timetable into the online journey planners which normally give a 12-week forward visibility of the planned timetable (so by 4 June); at the moment the online timetable only goes up to 15 August. We expect printed versions only closer to the time. We’ll look out for the availability of the full timetable.
@will You’re right about the long gap in Cannon Street services – although there was the same gap for fast trains in the normal timetable before the London Bridge work started. Trains to Cannon Street will be more lightly loaded than now because they won’t have London Bridge passengers, but both the 0723 and the 0728 are often reported full at Sevenoaks now so it’s hard to believe that the 0728 alone will be able to accommodate all the Cannon Street passengers.
The 0659 from High Brooms goes to Charing Cross, and will continue to do so, so stopping it will not help with the Cannon Street gap.
We’ll look at this issue further: Southeastern have offered to take final comments by mid-June.
I think we need to carefully monitor the Orpington stopping patterns that are creeping into the peak timetable. Orpington passengers pay significantly less for a tube-style ‘turn up an go’ service, compared to West Kent passengers who pay for a ‘turn up and find out whether any trains are running at the moment’ service.
Similarly, monitoring of the Chelsfield connection services; these are very useful services and cuts off the journey time for passengers travelling from Dunton Green and Knockholt to London.
@rivereadraven We agree.