The government is refusing to fund the return of Sunday trains between Lewisham, Blackheath, Charlton and Woolwich Arsenal, Southeastern bosses have told Greenwich Council.
Sunday services using the link between Blackheath and Charlton were scrapped in December 2022 when the Conservative government cut Southeastern Metro trains in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
But while some trains have been restored over the years, the new Labour government has declined to bring back the trains, which enabled people using the Woolwich line to easily connect with other destinations across south London and skip Sunday traffic queues.
The answer to a written question was released before a transport scrutiny meeting next week, when representatives from Southeastern, Thameslink, TfL and Network Rail are due to be grilled by councillors.
The question called the Sunday trains “vital for modal shift and reducing climate and pollution impacts”.
But the response said: “This is not currently under consideration. While we previously explored a business case for reinstating a Sunday service between Charlton and Lewisham, the analysis showed that the revenue generated would not be sufficient to cover the costs. As a result, reintroducing the service would require additional funding or subsidy from the Department for Transport, which is not available at this time.
“However, we remain open to reviewing this in the future should funding become available.”
Before the pandemic most stations in Greenwich borough had six trains an hour on Mondays to Saturdays, but in December 2022 this was cut to just four. Some peak-hour trains have been restored, but asked if the previous level of service would be return, Southeastern would only answer: “We continue to monitor passenger numbers, listen to stakeholder feedback and adapt services appropriately.”
Thameslink also revealed that it was looking to stop its Greenwich line trains at one of Woolwich Dockyard, Belvedere or Erith, if it could make time in the timetable.
Asked why its trains did not stop at Woolwich Dockyard, it said that they had to skip stations because they only had a narrow window to cross between the Greenwich line to the Thameslink lines when approaching or leaving London Bridge.
But it said: “There is potential scope to squeeze one of the three stations into the calling pattern which we are starting to evaluate with our partners at Southeastern and Network Rail.
“We do need to carefully model any performance impact however to inform any decision, as we would need to ensure the possible benefit of higher frequency, is not more than offset by a deterioration in punctuality and reliability for all services.”
The answers will be discussed further at next Thursday’s meeting.
Sir Sadiq Khan told the London Assembly two weeks ago that he still hoped that TfL would still be able to take over Southeastern Metro services by the time his current term in office ends in May 2028.
“The biggest potential would be in south London, where housebuilding rates are less than half the rest of London, because of poor transport connections,” he told the Conservative assembly member Keith Prince.
“Devolution of Great Northern and Southeastern services could be delivered most swiftly because the franchises end sooner and these are expected to have a strongest business case, Southern and South Western would be longer-term possibilities.”
He said that the new government’s devolution bill allowed mayors more powers over railways but added: “Given the state of the railways and the structures the government inherited, unfortunately this won’t happen overnight.”
Quizzed further by Prince, he said: “The two lines I mentioned I’m the most hopeful for in this mayoral term and we’re talking to the government about those.”
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