Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express passengers face timetable shake-up

Hundreds of thousands of commuters were today warned to expect changes to their journeys in the biggest ever shake-up of railway timetables.

More than 3,000 trains operated by Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express will be affected.

Commuters could be caught out by the alterations which will see many existing trains leaving stations up to two minutes early.

Bosses at parent company Govia Thameslink Railway claimed the revised schedule will create room for 40,000 extra passengers during rush hour.

The new weekday timetables, starting on May 21st, will also see a train every 2.5 minutes between Blackfriars and St Pancras.

Other improvements include direct services running from Cambridge to Brighton and from north Kent to Luton.