Southeastern has become the latest TOC to announce its timetable changes for the upcoming April train strikes, which start at the end of this week.
They will only run a very basic limited service on Monday 8th April, with most of the network seeing no trains at all next Monday, with customers being advised not to travel.
Southeastern will concentrate the trains that do run, on the busy lines within their suburban commuter belt, which will be:
- Orpington to London Charing Cross
- Dartford to London via Bexleyheath
- Dartford to London via Sidcup
- Highspeed services between Ashford and St Pancras International only
No trains will run on any other lines.
With the limited service in place, people expect these services to be very busy and crowded, not to mention that they will start later in the day and finish earlier than usual, which will strain interchange stations where TFL services meet southeastern services.
Local bus routes extremely busy more so than usual, making journeys across the capital much more difficult and congested.
For those that have no choice but to travel, journey planners on the Southeastern app and online will be updated with relevant information throughout the day and across the other six days were an overtime ban will be in place, those days being Thursday 4th, Friday 5th, Saturday 6th, Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th of April.
Across these days, Southeastern will run services as normal with some early morning and late services being affected by the overtime ban.
We are only able to run an extremely limited service during this ASLEF strike action, and our advice to customers is not to travel. There is likely to be long queues at the small number of stations that are open, which will lead to extended journey times for those who are travelling. In addition, services that are running will start later in the morning and finish much earlier in the evening. There is also strike action taking place across other operators, and on London Underground, so anyone who absolutely must travel should check their entire journey well in advance. We're sorry for any inconvenience that this strike action will cause, but we will be running a full service on all other days.”
Scott Brightwell, Southeastern's Operations & Safety Director
Members of ASLEF will go on strike in other regions on the following days:
- On Thursday 4 April trains will be running in some cases to reduced timetables. Do check before you travel.
- On Friday 5 April No Trains will run on: Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, and CrossCountry
- On Saturday 6 April, No Trains will run on: Chiltern, Great Western Railway, London North Eastern Railway, Northern, and TransPennine Express
- On Monday 8 April, No Trains will run on: c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR's Great Northern, Thameslink and Southern (including Gatwick Express), and South Western Railway. Southeastern will run a very limited service
- On Tuesday 9 April trains will be running in some cases to reduced timetables. Do check before you travel.
