Southeastern’s new trains and service improvements announced for September
Southeastern have announced further restoration of services on 12th September towards timetable levels seen in 2020.
Trains transferred from South West Railway are also set to begin running.
The main beneficiaries for Metro services are on the Sidcup and Bexleyheath lines. There are no frequency changes on the Greenwich line.
Back to normal
The Sidcup line moves back towards six trains per hour for part of the off-peak period.
However, it is not all day as seen until last year.
They appear only in the afternoon:
- The 15:02, 15:32, 16:24, 19:32, 20:02 and 20:32 London Charing Cross-Dartford are additional semi fast services.
- The 16:54 and 17:27 London Charing Cross-Gravesend are additional semi fast services
Semi-fast trains resume either side of the peak period which removes a 20 minute gap in services currently seen.
The Bexleyheath and Sidcup lines go back to eight trains per hour in the peaks.
Longer trains
The Bexleyheath line will see 12-car trains across the evening peak period:
All evening peak services from London Charing Cross-Bexleyheath-Dartford will be formed of 12 carriages (from 16:27 onwards)
That ensures no “new” Class 707s on that line in the evening peak given they can only run at a maximum length of 10-car.
Southeastern do not state where they will run, so whether they are predominantly focused on one line or will run across the Greenwich, Bexleyheath and Hayes line remains to be seen.
Class 707 arrival doe snot mean any net increase in overall carriages as Southeastern lack stabling space. Instead, it’s slightly more capacity with walk-through trains and fewer seats much like the Class 376s.
Unlike Class 376s, they do feature air con.
Southeastern have run very few 12-car trains since Network Rail invested tens of millions in platform extensions and power supply upgrades owing to a lack of stock.
Cutting certain services has allowed longer evening peak trains to run – for now.
