Southeastern is adding extra services and more carriages to services between south-east London, Kent, and East Sussex throughout the summer holidays.
The extra trains will run throughout the school holidays and boost the south-east’s tourism industry while the extra carriages will provide more capacity and encourage travellers to beat the traffic and travel in a more environmentally sustainable way by leaving the car at home.
From next Monday, 29th July, a direct service will depart at 09:32 on weekdays from Cannon Street to Whitstable, Herne Bay, Margate, Broadstairs, and Ramsgate, calling at London Bridge, Deptford, Greenwich, Maze Hill, Westcombe Park, Charlton, Woolwich Dockyard, Woolwich Arsenal, Plumstead, Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith, Slade Green, Dartford, Greenhithe, Gravesend, Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Sittingbourne and Faversham.
On Saturdays, three extra services will run in each direction between London Victoria and Ramsgate, and some trains to the Kent coast and Hastings at weekends will also have extra carriages,
Full details of the extra services can be found online here on their website and on the Southeastern app which can be downloaded here.
If anyone is unfortunate enough to lose something while travelling on a Southeastern train, the company now has a digital system to help reunite owners with their lost items.
Southeastern would remind travellers that the Kingsferry Bridge between Sittingbourne and Sheerness will remain closed until next Saturday, 27th July.
We are proud to serve the south-east and its wonderful attractions throughout the year, but with so many beautiful beaches and coastal areas on our doorstep we know the summer is a particularly great time to get out.
Rail travel is one of the most environmentally friendly ways to travel and to encourage more people to leave their car at home, we are running extra services throughout the summer.
This will also provide a boost to the tourism industry in Kent and East Sussex, while making it easier for customers in south-east London to explore our network.
Southeastern also continues to operate extra late-night services from Margate to support music events at Dreamland over the summer.
Julian Moosai, Southeastern’s Head of Service Delivery
Encouraging more visitors to choose sustainable transport is a key priority in the Kent Sustainable Tourism Action Plan. We are therefore thrilled that Southeastern is increasing services to the Kent coast this summer, helping to make our visitors decision to travel by train even easier.
These additional train services will also ensure more visitors have the chance to discover Kent’s gems, from our welcoming attractions to our six Blue Flag and eighteen Seaside Awarded beaches.
Deirdre Wells OBE, Visit Kent Chief Executive
Responses
It’s a disgrace that Southeastern has slowed the classic lines from Ashford to London stations to a craw from Folkestone, Ashford to Charing Cross for example, stopping at every lamp post adding over 35 minutes on the same track that slam door trains did so much faster compared to todays trains. If you want to be shoehorned onto a more expensive high speed train often to a part of London you don’t to go to and then have the hassle of making your way to central London on an already overcrowded bus and underground system . Shame the high speed trains don’t use Waterloo station when Eurostar pulled out as they would be well busy other than St Pancras.
Not really a “summer express” with all those stops. Why not run non-stop Dartford to Chatham then Whitstable. Young children get fractious during long journeys destroying what should be an introduction to rail travel.
It just begs the question, why did the railways stop running extra summer services before?