Southern Railways weekday timetable from Monday 21st - Friday 25th February

[ChrisR]

Southern have announced their weekday timetable changes from Monday 21st February - Friday 25th February and with more services being transferred back to Victoria from London Bridge the stopping service from East Croydon to London Bridge is finally being reinstated

Southern - Revised-timetable

Journey planners have already been updated. However, although from the response our MP Ellie Reeves received from Southern there was no expectation that the Victoria service would be reinstated at the same time as the London Bridge services and there is no mention of it in the new announcement on Southern’s website National Rail’s journey planner is showing weekday peak services operating again from February 21st! This is either great news or a mistake! If the later then the details below may be incorrect and may also affect some of the London Bridge services shown!
However this is what is currently shown on National Rail’s Journey Planner from Monday 21st February:

Forest Hill to London Bridge (3 minutes later from Honor Oak Park)
First service at 0535 (0537 from HOP)
13, 28, 43 and 58 past each hour from 0558 to 0858
13 and 43 past each hour from 0913 to 1643
13, 28, 43 and 58 past each hour from 1658 until 1928
13 and 43 past each hour from 1943 until 2313.

London Bridge to Forest Hill
First service at 0534
10, 28, 40 and 58 past each hour from 0610 to 0928
10 and 40 past each hour from 0940 to 1640
10, 28, 40 and 58 past each hour from 1710 until 1958
10 and 40 past each hour from 2010 until 2240
10, 28, 40 and 58 past each hour from 2258 until 2358 then 0035

Forest Hill to Victoria (3 minutes earlier from Honor Oak Park)
12 and 42 past each hour from 0642 to 0842 and from 1742 to 1842 and 2312

Victoria to Forest Hill
20 and 50 past each hour from 0650 to 0820 and from 1620 to 1850

For up to date changes /disruptions etc it’s always recommended to check live departure apps before travelling!

UPDATE 8 February 22
Good news - Southern have now loaded the weekday timetables commencing Monday 21st February on their website and these do show the Victoria services!
https://timetables.southernrailway.com/SN/#/timetables/1062/Table%20

UPDATE 20 February 22
With the publication of yet another revised Southern weekday timetable - this time from 28th February it appears that the reintroduction of our direct morning and evening services to and from Victoria is going to be short-lived and will only operate this coming week from Monday 21st - Friday 25th (and that’s assuming there won’t be any storm related cancellations!). I can’t understand why Southern are bothering to put on extra services for 5 days and then withdraw them again and have attempted to get an answer from Southern but have been unsuccessful. I will create a new topic covering the new timetable from Monday 28th February!

[Stuartf]

Can we all chip in to have a brass band welcome the first train on the 21st?

[ChrisR]

Great idea but first train is at 5.35am!

[CC]

Hooray! Very pleased we are now back to four trains per hour during the peak times too!

[ChrisR]

@CC

we are now back to four trains per hour during the peak times to

As long as the Victoria services are actually being reinstated as that route provides 2 of the 4 peak time options to and from London Bridge.

[squashst]

Its welcome news that the East Croydon trains are coming back. It really is an important route. Its a shame that we have to wait until 21st February, but at least there are better times ahead. I would like the London Bridge to Victoria trains back as that does get back the 4 trains an hour. I hope Southern do not adopt the approach of “2 trains an hour is better than zero” and that will be enough to keep people quiet. If they do take that approach, we should not be quiet.

[maxrocks]

No way should we be quiet if that is the case!
After so long with no service I actually think we’ve been remarkably calm and accepting.

[rhys]

This is great news, thank you for the update! The return of the Victoria and East Croydon services is great in addition to the essential London Bridge route.

I don’t think we should have to choose between overground and rail services. Both are essential for Forest Hill to have good connections to different parts of Central London and beyond. Thank you to everyone who raised their voices to make sure that we weren’t forgotten about, and I fully agree that we shouldn’t stay quiet in future if we see our rail services under threat!

[Joncocteau]

[Rosered]

I’m back l the office this week after having been out of London caring for my father. Yesterday I cycled but today that’s not possible and I just realised there are no southern trains at all anymore. I’m very glad that it seems this may not be permanent but wish all those of you attending the meeting with southern good luck in re-enforcing the points about the unacceptability of actually completely cutting the whole service. Actually glad I live on the ‘other side of the tracks’ this morning so lower sydenham and southeastern is an option.

[ChrisR]

UPDATE 20 February 22
With the publication of yet another revised Southern weekday timetable - this time from 28th February it appears that the reintroduction of our direct morning and evening services to and from Victoria is going to be short-lived and will only operate this coming week from Monday 21st - Friday 25th (and that’s assuming there won’t be any storm related cancellations!).

I can’t understand why Southern are bothering to put on extra services for 5 days and then withdraw them again and have attempted to get an answer from Southern but have been unsuccessful. I will create a new topic covering the new timetable from Monday 28th February!

[endlessblockade]

Thanks for posting. Vicky Foxcroft MP has a meeting with Southern on 23/02. I had emailed her saying it looks like both services have been resumed, but have flagged this with her. Hopefully she can get some answers from them this week.

[Sherwood]

I am guessing that their payment for the next contract period is calculated on the trains running on 21 February!

[ChrisR]

@endlessblockade

Hopefully she can get some answers from them this week.

That would be great @endlessblockade. It would be interesting if Vicky can get an answer from Southern as to how they can reinstate at least some peak time services to and from Victoria in both directions this week but then not from the following week. Southern advised Ellie Reeves (the MP for much of SE23) when she had a meeting with them that they wouldn’t be able to reinstate those services until their staff absentee rate had dropped to 12% but it seems as if they are applying a different criteria now. It’s particularly strange how they can add peak time Victoria services for 5 days this coming week and then get rid of the majority of them the following week. Although they’re keeping 2 morning services from Victoria to London Bridge do the times (8 .28 and 8.58 from Forest Hill ) reflect when there is the highest demand from our local stations? And why no services to Victoria except at 2312 for those who work in the Battersea or Victoria areas or who need to connect to South Western Railways at Clapham Junction.

[NewtoSE]

I received a letter from Ellie’s office that forwarded an email from Southern.

Southern have quoted that they’ve still got driver unavailability rates of 16%, (apparently down from 21% in Dec) hence the need to run a reduced service.

Last week passengers were being left behind at Brockley because the overground was too full.

[endlessblockade]

It doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume that a chunk of that figure comprises of people who might not be sick but are obliged to self-isolate under the current rules. Given the government are changing their guidance today (?) then you’d hope that figure would drop quite quickly.

[rbmartin]

I’d like to think any responsible employer would allow those who have negative tests to return to work while those with Covid would stay at home, regardless of what this government legislates from Thursday.