Industrial action by the RMT trade union on the Southeastern network will mean that the vast majority of trains will not run on Wednesday 27th July.
Southeastern is strongly advising passengers not to travel during this time. Passengers who’ve already bought a ticket can find out more about refunds on the Industrial Action page of the Southeastern website.
All but 44 stations on Southeastern’s network will be closed, with only the London-Sevenoaks and Dartford lines remaining open within London, running a very limited service.
There will be no trains serving most of Kent, including the Medway Towns, Tonbridge, Maidstone, Thanet, Canterbury, Folkestone and Dover, with Highspeed trains only running between London St Pancras and Ashford.
There will be no trains at all on the Hastings line, nor the branch lines including Sittingbourne to Sheppey, the Medway Valley Line and the Grove Park to Bromley North line.
Trains on the severely reduced network will only run between 07:00 and 19:00, and there will be no trains on any other route, with the last trains back from London running much earlier than usual.
You may be unable to board trains at stations where a limited service is running, especially at locations such as Ashford and Ebbsfleet
No rail replacement buses or taxis will be available.
A reduced timetable will be put into place as follows:
|
Line of route |
Status on Wednesday 27th July |
|
Woolwich line |
2 trains per hour, 07:00-19:00 only. NO SERVICE at all other times. |
|
Bexleyheath |
2 trains per hour, 07:00-19:00 only. NO SERVICE at all other times. |
|
Sidcup line |
2 trains per hour, 07:00-19:00 only. NO SERVICE at all other times. |
|
Hayes line |
NO SERVICE |
|
Grove Park line (London to Sevenoaks) |
6 trains per hour, 07:00-19:00 only. NO SERVICE at all other times. |
|
Bromley South line |
NO SERVICE |
|
Sole Street line |
NO SERVICE |
|
Maidstone East line |
NO SERVICE |
|
Paddock Wood line |
NO SERVICE |
|
Hastings line |
NO SERVICE |
|
Medway Valley line |
NO SERVICE |
|
Sheerness line |
NO SERVICE |
|
Highspeed via Ashford (London to Ashford only) |
2 trains per hour 07:00-19:00 only. NO SERVICE at all other times. |
|
Highspeed via Gravesend |
NO SERVICE |
On the day after industrial action (Thursday 28th July), no services will run before 07:00. If you travel by train on the day after industrial action, please expect severe disruption, and check your entire journey before you set off.
Alicia Andrews, Southeastern’s Commercial Director, said:
“If a strike goes ahead there’ll be significant disruption to our services. The number of train services we'll be able to run will be extremely limited, and so we'd strongly advise our passengers not to travel for any reason, to replan their journey for another day or, to work from home if they can. We apologise for the obvious inconvenience this causes.”
Passengers with questions about the impact on their journeys should check the Southeastern website, which has been updated with comprehensive information advising them what to do. Strike day timetables will set out the extremely limited number of trains that will run for those people who really need to travel, with information on refunds for people with unused tickets who decide not to travel.
Timetable information for Wednesday 27th July is available below, and will show in journey planners from Saturday 23rd July.
The network map below indicates which limited services will be running. In addition to the services below, due to planned engineering work a replacement bus service will be running between Denmark Hill and Beckenham Junction, calling at all stations (except Brixton) between Herne Hill and Beckenham Junction. View bus times in the online journey planner.
Refunds and compensation
If you have already bought a ticket, you can apply for a refund if you don’t travel:
- Daily ticket holders can claim a full refund with no admin fee if they choose not to travel.
- Advance ticket holders can either apply for a full refund with no admin fee or return to the original retailer for an eVoucher, for use purchasing a future ticket. eVouchers are valid for 12 months from the date of issue.
- Season ticket holders (Flexi, monthly or longer) can use Delay Repay to claim a day travel back if they choose not to travel on days of industrial action, making sure to select the reason for delay as Industrial Action – did not travel. For Flexi ticket holders, to receive Delay Repay you must have activated a pass for the day you’re claiming.
- Weekly tickets – we recommend you don’t buy a weekly season ticket during the industrial action. If you already have a weekly ticket please go to our refunds page to claim a partial refund.
If you do travel and were delayed for 15 minutes or more, you are entitled to Delay Repay compensation.
More information
You can keep up to date here where we’ll post the latest information, follow us on Twitter, or you can sign up to receive service updates on the planned industrial action.
We’re sorry for the frustration and inconvenience that this industrial action will cause.
