Southern adds extra trains to revised timetable

Southern is adding more services to the revised timetable it introduced on Monday to reduce delays and provide improved capacity on the busiest routes. These include more trains on the Tulse Hill, Peckham Rye route, the Mole Valley route between Dorking and Epsom and a train to and from Seaford and also to and from Lewes.

Southern Passenger Service Director Alex Foulds: “Now that the revised timetable has had time to bed in, we have been able to fine tune the deployment of our available train crews to plug timetable gaps and provide additional capacity on some of the routes most affected.

“Although we are running fewer trains, we are providing greater certainty for commuters by concentrating our resources on providing a more reliable and punctual rush hour service. The journey to restoring the railway to a better level of performance still has some way to go but we are encouraged that the new timetable is a first step in that direction.”

The revised timetable has made a big difference to train punctuality, with eight out of 10 trains now arriving on time compared with just six out of 10 before. In the morning and evening peaks there is still 95% of train capacity at Victoria and 84-86% of train capacity at London Bridge yet just one train has been cancelled each day in the peaks (Mon-Thurs) since the timetable began compared with a total of 85 for those four days the week before.

Southern introduced the revised timetable with reluctance after passengers had been suffering hundreds of last-minute cancellations every day since the RMT began its industrial action.

The trains added (with some extended to call at more stations) in the revised timetable from Monday 18 July are:

• 0906 Gatwick Airport to Victoria non-stop (arriving 09.36) • 1000 Victoria to Brighton (arriving 10.54) calling at Gatwick Airport
• 0636 Victoria to Dorking calling at Battersea Park, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Common, Balham, Streatham Hill, West Norwood, Gipsy Hill , Crystal Palace, Norwood Junction, West Croydon, Waddon, Wallington, Carshalton Beeches, Sutton, Cheam, Ewell East, Epsom, Ashtead, Leatherhead,
• 0734 Dorking to Victoria calling at Leatherhead, Ashtead then as normal from Epsom departing 0749
• 0835 Dorking to Victoria calling at Leatherhead, Ashtead, Epsom, Ewell East, Cheam, Sutton, Carshalton, Hackbridge, Mitcham Junction, Mitcham Eastfields, Balham ,Clapham Junction
• 1637 Victoria-Epsom calling at Battersea Park, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Common, Balham, Streatham Hill, West Norwood, Gipsy Hill , Crystal Palace, Norwood Junction, West Croydon, Waddon, Wallington, Carshalton Beeches, Sutton, Cheam, Ewell East
• 1857 Epsom to Victoria calling at Sutton, Carshalton Beeches, Wallington, Waddon, West Croydon, Norwood Junction, Crystal Palace, West Norwood, Streatham Hill, Balham, Wandsworth Common, Clapham Junction, Battersea Park
• 0620 Streatham Hill to London Bridge (arriving 0643) calling at Tulse Hill, North Dulwich, East Dulwich, Peckham Rye, Queens Road Peckham and South Bermondsey
• 0905 Streatham to London Bridge (arriving 0929) calling at Tulse Hill, North Dulwich, East Dulwich , Peckham Rye , Queens Road Peckham and South Bermondsey
• 1709 Peckham Rye to London Bridge (arriving 1719) calling at Queens Road Peckham, South Bermondsey
• 1746 South Bermondsey to West Croydon, starting 1730 at London Bridge
• 0840 East Croydon to Clapham Junction 0904 calling at Selhurst, Thornton Heath, Norbury, Streatham Common, Balham, Wandsworth Common
• 1735 Brighton to Lewes (arriving 1751)
• 1757 Lewes to Brighton (arriving 1813)
• 1822 Brighton to Seaford (arriving 1855)
• 1859 Seaford to Brighton (arriving 1931)

ends

Editor’s notes

The average percentage of Southern trains arriving on time (within five minutes of their scheduled arrival time) in the week before the revised timetable was introduced (4-8 July) was 62.5%. For the four days from Monday to Thursday this week (11-14 July) 80.2% of trains arrived on time. By comparison, there is an 88.5% on time average across the rail network.