Customers across Kent, East Sussex and south-east London are being urged to check before they travel ahead of Southeastern’s new timetable, which comes into effect on 17 May.
The updated timetable introduces changes across the network, including additional services, revised stopping patterns and some alterations to train lengths, all designed to improve reliability and make best use of available trains.
Passengers will benefit from more frequent services and extra capacity on some of the busiest routes, including the reintroduction of peak-time trains to London Blackfriars from the Medway towns and Maidstone East, restoring a direct link to the City.
Additional weekday services between Charing Cross and Maidstone East will provide a more consistent service through the afternoon and early evening, while extra off-peak services between London Victoria and Ashford via Maidstone East will restore a half-hourly frequency for much of the day.
Scott Brightwell, Safety, Planning & Performance Director at South Eastern Railway, said:
“This timetable introduces more capacity on some of our busiest routes and restores direct peak-time links to Blackfriars for customers travelling from the Medway towns and Maidstone East.
“We’ve also added additional services across the network, including on Highspeed and Maidstone East routes, while making changes to support a more reliable railway overall.
“We regularly review how customers are travelling and listen to feedback about where we can improve services, capacity and connections, and these changes are part of those ongoing improvements across the network.
“As some departure times and stopping patterns will change, we’re encouraging customers to check their journeys before travelling.”
Highspeed services will also see improvements, with additional trains between Canterbury West and St Pancras on weekdays and Saturday mornings to support leisure travel, alongside extra weekend services between Faversham and St Pancras to increase frequency at busier times.
Alongside these changes, some journey times, platform allocations and train formations have been adjusted to support better punctuality and performance.
This May timetable comes ahead of a larger update in December, which will see customers across south-east London getting one of the biggest improvements to Metro services in years.
For all timetable updates, customers are advised to check the Southeastern website.
