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. Southeastern are consulting on changes to the timetable, and other arrangements, during this period.  This affects trains from and to Sevenoaks and Dunton Green.  We want to hear your views.

Update January 2015: Final timetables have now been published and we have written a Survival Guide to the London Bridge Rebuilding which includes details. You can read it here.

 

The following is mainly for historical and comparative purposes

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.  There are some change still to be worked out by Southeastern.  The detail is quite complicated.

Weekday, early morning

No changes are proposed so far to fast trains from Sevenoaks, but Southeastern say that they are still looking at early morning services.  Before 0653 only the 0611 currently goes to Cannon Street.  All the other trains go to Charing Cross, and all currently stop at London Bridge which will become impossible during the rebuilding work.  Without changes this will mean there is no connection to the City before 0611 or between 0611 and 0653.

Weekday, morning peak (changes in bold)

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
0726	London Bridge, Cannon Street	No change
0731	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
0746	Waterloo East, Charing Cross	Destination changed – not stopping at London Bridge
0750	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	London Bridge, Cannon Street	Destination changed – will continue to stop at London Bridge
0826	Waterloo East, Charing Cross	Destination changed – not stopping at London Bridge
0837	Waterloo East, Charing Cross	Slow service.  Not stopping at London Bridge
0845	Waterloo East, Charing Cross	Not stopping at London Bridge
0848	Waterloo East, Charing Cross	Not stopping at London Bridge
0855	London Bridge, Cannon Street	No change

The SRTA Trains Group considers that this pattern needs change:

• People using the 0703, 0743 and 0803 from Sevenoaks to travel to London Bridge via Chelsfield will need to switch to the fast services – which are already in excess of capacity.
• The service pattern is uneven, with batches of trains to Cannon Street followed by batches of trains to Charing Cross.  This means the first of the trains will be very heavily loaded.  It would be better if the 0723 continued to go to Charing Cross and the 0743 was diverted to Cannon Street instead.
• For Dunton Green commuters, there will be no good connection from the 0720 or the 0820 service at Chelsfield or Orpington to Waterloo East and Charing Cross – both connections at Chelsfield are diverted to Cannon Street and the connection at Orpington at 0742 is diverted to Blackfriars. Similarly the 0800 from Dunton Green will go to Waterloo East and Charing Cross, and there is no good connection at Chelsfield or Orpington to reach London Bridge or Cannon Street.  A table showing the Dunton Green direct and Chelsfield change options is here.
• While it is possible to access the Jubilee Line at Waterloo East via Southwark station, the stairway down from Platform D is narrow and unsuitable for the extra traffic from people who would previously have accessed the Jubilee Line at London Bridge.

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

The SRTA Trains Group considers that this change is largely unavoidable, and the fact that the xx10 and xx40 do not stop at Orpington will help even out the loading between the two trains leaving 5 minutes apart.

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.  Because there are gaps in services from 2100 the SRTA Trains Group considers that departures from Charing Cross at xx10, xx40 and xx45 do not provide sufficient capacity, and we are pressing for a xx15 service in line with the daytime timetable.

Southeastern are still working on last trains.  We are pressing for last trains from Charing Cross/Waterloo East to be preserved no earlier than now, and for new last trains from Cannon Street and London Bridge at about the same time.

Saturdays

The Saturday service will be similar to the weekday off-peak services.  Our point about the evening service after 2100 applies even more strongly on Saturday.

Sundays

There will inevitably be additional disruption on Sunday due to engineering work at London Bridge – in addition to the usual Sunday disruptions.  SRTA are considering whether it might be simpler and more consistent simply to divert all the fast trains to Victoria for the duration – giving a consistent 15-minute service.  Different arrangements each weekend and services which sometimes go to Charing Cross, sometimes to Cannon Street and sometimes to Victoria are inherently confusing – and 30 minute gaps between services from each terminal are unattractive.

What do you think?

We would be very interested to hear views from our members on these proposals and on what you would do to get to and from London – would you change your destination, change the train you travel on, switch to Centaur Coaches, or something else?  How could the proposals be improved?

We need to respond initially to Southeastern by 7 February, so it would be good to hear some views before then.  However there is clearly some scope for further discussion, and some necessary changes have not yet been proposed, so we expect this to be a subject of on-going discussions.

Update: Our initial response to meet Southeastern’s deadline is here.  However this is just the start of the discussion, so please keep your comments and suggestions coming.