Rail passengers in southeast London will get a “turn up and go service” on most routes on Mondays to Saturdays from December, Southeastern has said, as it confirmed plans to reverse many of the service cuts made after the pandemic.
Blackheath, Kidbrooke and Eltham stations are due to get more trains to Charing Cross from December – including on Sundays, when Bexleyheath line trains that run to Cannon Street are diverted to the West End terminal “in response to customer demand”.
The state-owned rail company revealed in February that “rounder” trains linking Mottingham, New Eltham and Sidcup with the Elizabeth Line at Abbey Wood would return six days a week, four years after they were scrapped in the wake of Covid.
It also said that Bexleyheath line stations would get two trains per hour to Charing Cross all day, instead of just one off-peak and on Saturdays. There will now also be two trains per hour on Sundays too.
Southeastern has gone into some more detail about what is planned, although it has warned that these are still subject to final approval.
Most Metro routes will get four trains per hour, six days a week, from December. The exception is the Bromley North line, which remains at two trains per hour – but this service will be extended to Sundays for the first time in many years.
Services between Orpington and Victoria via Herne Hill will be increased to four trains per hour on Saturdays.
However, not all of the Covid cuts are being reversed. There will still be no direct service from Lewisham to Charlton, Woolwich Arsenal and Abbey Wood on Sundays, for instance.
A series of improvements have also been announced to mainline services for Kent, with some starting when the next timetable begins on May 17.
Southeastern has also confirmed that two direct trains will run from the Greenwich line to Ramsgate on Saturdays from May 30 to September 5 – when engineering works are not taking place – with weekday trains being added in the school summer holidays.
The changes come as the rail industry prepares for the launch of the nationalised Great British Railways, with Southeastern’s trains and the Network Rail operation in the region already being run jointly as South Eastern Railway.
Thameslink services, including through Greenwich, and the adjacent Southern network will be nationalised on May 31 when the current operator’s contract ends.
Scott Brightwell, South Eastern Railway’s planning and performance director, said: “We aren’t sitting around waiting for Great British Railways to deliver a better railway. We are working together, today, to make changes that will build a simpler, more reliable and better-connected railway for our customers.”
Brightwell told Greenwich councillors in February that usage levels had reached a “tipping point” that indicated a boost to metro services would be financially viable.
He said the return to a more frequent service would be a “massive, massive step” towards a “transformed” service that would help boost regeneration in southeast London.
The service cuts, made in December 2022, came after Southeastern’s finances had been hit badly by a slump in the sale of lucrative season tickets from stations in Kent after the pandemic. But last month it said the number of journeys made with the tickets were growing at stations in the county, including an 11 per cent rise at both Dartford and Gravesend.
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