Southeastern will look at increasing train services on Charlton Athletic matchdays after being asked about the issue by a Greenwich councillor.
Direct trains to Charlton from Sidcup line stations such as Mottingham and New Eltham were axed in 2022 as part of wide-ranging cuts to Southeastern Metro services.
While some weekday “rounder” services have been restored, there are still no direct services from the south of the borough to Charlton on Saturdays, meaning fans have to change trains at Lewisham or Dartford to reach The Valley.
Scott Brightwell, the company’s director of operations, said that he would discuss the idea after it was suggested by Charlie Davis, a Conservative councillor for Eltham Town & Avery Hill.
Brightwell said that while boosting weekend services in general was unlikely, the government-owned rail firm would be open to adding services where they would make money.
“The example that I would give locally is Charlton fans living in New Eltham wanting to go to the Valley.It is obviously difficult for you to timetable [the trains] when next season’s fixtures aren’t set until the summer,” Davis said at last Thursday’s transport scrutiny panel, which questioned representatives from TfL, Southeastern, Thameslink and Network Rail.
“But is there something there that could be explored to add services around when people will be going to and coming from matches?”
“The football matches pose a real challenge because of the late-notice changes, [but] what I’ll do is I will take that away for consideration, and I’ll discuss that with some of the team,” Brightwell said.
“We’ll work with the football club to see if we can get some season ticket postcode data or something like that to understand what the demand could be so that we will try that.
“I can’t promise I can do anything but we will work with the club and see what we can do to find that intelligence that may inform that decision.”
Greenwich Peninsula Labour councillor David Gardner criticised Southeastern’s decision not to reinstate services between Woolwich and Lewisham on Sundays, which were also axed in 2022. The train company said the government would not fund them.
Brightwell said that while passenger numbers on the adjacent Bexleyheath line on Sundays were broadly level with pre-pandemic levels, the Woolwich line was only at 50 per cent, but Southeastern was monitoring numbers. The Elizabeth Line, which is run by TfL, opened at Woolwich and Abbey Wood in May 2022.
“People using the Lizzie Line will be going in a different direction,” Gardner said. “If you’re not providing the service, you can’t know what the passenger numbers are.”
Brightwell said that Southeastern, which also runs longer-distance trains in Kent and East Sussex, was being subsidised by £400 million a year. “We have to try to choose wisely where we invest money,”he said.
“I don’t think the Sunday service would be the best use of taxpayers’ money and others would be prioritised above it – that is the situation we are in.”
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