Southeastern Rail is updating its timetable next week, leading to some changes to trains across south east London, Kent and parts of Sussex.

The updated timetable will be in place from Sunday, June 2.

Southeastern has said that the updated timetable will mean “better spacing of services, less waiting time on platforms and extra capacity where it is needed most.”

It also aims to improve punctuality, add more carriages and services on busiest trains and services to reduce crowding.

Last year, Southeastern provided 125 million journeys – a year-on-year increase of nine per cent with the busiest days now exceeding 500,000 journeys per day across the network.

Scott Brightwell, Southeastern, said: “We know how important the railway is to south-east London, Kent and Sussex and that is why we are continually listening to our customers and analysing travel data to update our timetable accordingly.

“This open approach to building a better, more reliable, and sustainable railway has seen the number of customers travelling with us continuing to increase – with some weekdays seeing over half a million journeys across our network, alongside a nine per cent increase year on year.

“We also know our timetable is our promise to our customers.

“The changes we will make this year are all aimed at providing more consistent and repeatable departure times, increasing capacity where it is needed while also continuing to provide a reliable, low-cancellation railway.

“We look forward to sharing more details before the timetable changes on June 2 but would encourage customers to make use of the information on our website and in our app and understand how the new timetable may affect their journey.”

The improvements include:

Plans for Southeastern Metro Services

Southeastern plans to have:

  • A better spread of trains between Abbey Wood and Dartford for connections to the Elizabeth Line.
  • Four trains per hour all day to and from Albany Park.
  • Better spacing of trains on the Greenwich & Woolwich lines to London Bridge.
  • Late evening services on Saturdays to the Bexleyheath line now run from Charing Cross instead of from Cannon Street. 
  • Services between Victoria and Dartford are extended to Gravesend, calling at Greenhithe, providing a direct link to Denmark Hill for Kings College and Maudsley Hospitals and giving a direct interchange at Gravesend to highspeed services.
  • More evening peak services to Bromley North.

Plans for Southeastern Main Line services

Southeastern plans to have:

  • Two additional evening peak services from Charing Cross to Ashford via Maidstone East providing a half-hourly service from 16.29 to 18.29.
  • One Main Line service per hour will call at Thanet Parkway – doubling the off-peak service frequency while also providing a half-hourly highspeed service to St Pancras International (via a change at Ashford International).
  • Medway Valley Line services are retimed to improve connections at Paddock Wood and Strood.
  • Three extra services from Tunbridge Wells to Charing Cross on weekdays between 0900 and 1030 – providing additional capacity for those who don’t travel during the morning peak.
  • Extra Saturday morning service between Tunbridge Wells and Charing Cross.
  • And - additional late-night weekend services to support Dreamland in Margate’s spring and summer activities.

Southeastern highspeed services

Southeastern plans to run:

  • Until September 8, some trains to and from the coast will be longer to provide more space at busier times.
  • Some departure times have changed slightly.
  • No material changes to stopping patterns or service frequencies.