How are south east trains affected by the timetable change?

A new timetable across the railway industry will come into effect from today.

The changes will see additional services introduced across the south east, with some services having extra carriages creating more seats for passengers.

Services on Southeastern, Govia Thameslink Railway (Southern and Thameslink) and South Western Railway will all have some changes, with some routes seeing more than others.

Here, we take a look at the key changes below and how this might affect your journey:

• Trains from Ramsgate, Dover, Folkestone, Canterbury and Ashford to London via Tonbridge have been spread out more evenly during the morning peak and two extra trains will run to create more space.
• Hildenborough station will receive an extra train in the morning and evening peak, to increase the frequency.
• Services from Ramsgate, Margate, Faversham and Sittingbourne via the Medway Towns to London will see quicker journey times into Victoria.
• There’s a better spread of services between Faversham and the Medway Towns to London Bridge and Cannon Street at the busiest times in the morning.
• Additional late services will run to allow better connections later in the evening in North Kent and enable people to get home from events at Dreamland in Margate.
• Two additional services will run from London Charing Cross to Ashford via Maidstone East in the evening peak, meaning there will be a train every half hour from 16:29 to 18:29.
• Three more services will run between Tunbridge Wells and London between 09:00 and 10:30 and an extra service from Charing Cross will run to Hastings arriving at 08:29.
• Departures from Tunbridge Wells are better spaced during the busiest times in the morning between 07:09 and 08:20 towards London.
• Additional trains at the weekend will run between Tunbridge Wells and London, meaning six trains per hour between Tonbridge and London at the busiest times.
• Trains between Hastings and London via Tunbridge Wells will have more carriages at the weekends.
• There will be a better spread of trains between Abbey Wood and Dartford to enable connections for the Elizabeth Line.
• Services from Cannon Street to Gravesend via Lewisham & Woolwich will start and terminate at Dartford.
• Trains from Dartford to London Charing Cross via Bexleyheath will be up to five minutes quicker and more evenly spaced out.
• Services from London Victoria to Dartford via Bexleyheath will now be extended to Gravesend.
• Late evening services from London to Dartford via Bexleyheath will run from Charing Cross from 21:55 to the end of service.
• Trains from Dartford to London via Sidcup will be evenly spread at 15-minute intervals, with more services now serving Albany Park.

Southern has changed services on its West Coastway route. A spokesperson says this is “to improve the reliability of our service in this area, to provide faster regional journeys and for connections onwards to the West of England”.

The new Monday-Saturday timetable will be:

• A half-hourly service between Brighton and Southampton Central
• An hourly service between Brighton and Portsmouth & Southsea
• A half-hourly service between London Victoria and Portsmouth Harbour/Bognor Regis. These trains attach and detach at Horsham.
• A half-hourly service between London Victoria and Littlehampton via Hove
• An hourly stopping service (all stations) between Brighton and Chichester via Littlehampton
• A half-hour shuttle service between Bognor Regis and Barnham.
• Customers travelling between Southampton Central and London Victoria via Gatwick Airport will need to change trains at Barnham or Chichester.

The Sunday service will be largely unchanged, except for some minor re-timing.

Other changes to Southern and Thameslink services include:

• Some peak services from Dorking to London Victoria via Hackbridge will start from/be extended to Horsham.
• On Saturdays, all services between Epsom and London Victoria via Hackbridge will run with eight or 10 carriages.
• The 06:05 Littlehampton to London Bridge, and the 17:33 London Bridge to Littlehampton service will run on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday only.
• Some services between Rainham and Luton via Greenwich and London have been re-timed to allow for better connections in the Woolwich and Greenwich area.

South Western Railway (SWR) said that services from Portsmouth to London Waterloo via Woking would be significantly changed, as well as services from Portsmouth to Southampton.

This is due to the changes on Southern’s West Coastway route, which are listed above.

SWR added that other minor changes have been made across its network for service improvements.