Southeastern and Govia Thameslink Railway winter timetables in force

Southeastern is removing first class on its services

Southeastern and Govia Thameslink have brought in new timetables in response to a large fall in commuting since the pandemic.

Southeastern said it was also scrapping first class on its services between London, Kent and East Sussex.

Removing first class will also free up 60 seats a day on a 12-car train, the operator said.

About 700 trains - a quarter of Govia Thameslink Railway's (GTR) weekday services - are affected by the changes.

Up to 10 minutes will be cut from rush hour journey times from Brighton to London Bridge.

The new timetable comes into force on Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express services in Kent, Sussex and Surrey operated by GTR.

In addition, engineering work is affecting services between Littlehampton and Brighton over the weekend, Govia Thameslink said.

When the new timetable was announced in September, Southeastern said weekday peak demand between February and July had only been at 56% of pre-pandemic levels.

Southeastern runs services between London and the Kent and East Sussex coasts

Southeastern said a new service was being introduced from Maidstone East to London Charing Cross.

It said timetables would be "more consistent" with more trains leaving the station at about the same time each hour.

"We've changed some routes so that trains avoid crossing at busy junctions such as Lewisham and Tonbridge which causes delay.

"Our simpler timetable is designed so that as more customers travel with us in future, it's possible to add more trains, and takes other factors, such as future housing developments, into consideration," it added.

Strike action is due to take place by the RMT union on 13, 14, 16 and 17 December.

GTR said there may also be reductions in the number of services on some routes, between Sunday and 4 January, to allow for major engineering works to be carried out over the Christmas and New Year period.

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