Major changes on Southern, Southeastern, South Western Railway and GWR, is your train affected?

Some train services across southern England face major changes under new timetables which have been introduced today.

Routes across Southern, South Western Railway, Great Western Railway and Southeastern's network have been altered with rail bosses promising improvements.

Some of the biggest alterations are along the south coast with new timings and additional trains from Sussex and Hampshire to London.

On Southern, as part of 5,000 additional seats, there are new half-hourly services between Brighton and Southampton with double the number of trains from Brighton to Worthing and Chichester.

Portsmouth services to Gatwick and London have doubled from one every hour while trains from the city - along with Southampton - to Waterloo now depart and arrive closer to ferry services.

Southern’s Customer Services Director Jenny Saunders said, "We’re making these changes to give passengers more trains and many more seats on our more popular routes. Services will be much more frequent, more punctual, faster in some cases, and more reliable right across the network. There will be less waiting for trains as well because we’ll space out the services more evenly.

"Increasing comfort, convenience and connections will encourage greener travel on our electric trains, improving the environment for communities from Southampton to Brighton while boosting local economies."

Steve Tyler, South Western Railway’s Performance and Planning Director said,

"Our June 2024 timetable is the result of careful planning, taking into account our customers’ travel patterns and changes by other train operators on our network.

"To provide customers with a more reliable timetable, and in response to Southern’s West Coastway timetable changes, we’re making significant changes between Portsmouth and London Waterloo, and between Southampton Central and Portsmouth.

Train passengers in Kent are being promised improvements too with the number of Southeastern off-peak trains doubling at Thanet Parkway, the new station which opened last July.

There will also be better connections on the Medway Valley Line at Strood and Tonbridge and less wait times at Tunbridge Wells between trains.

The rail operator says it's reacting to changes in demand with more than 125 million journeys made in the year to the end of March, a 9% increase on the previous 12-month period.

On Great Western Railway, trains from Reading to Gatwick are being retimed and later in the year the Oxford to Bristol service will resume on Saturdays for the first time in more than 20 years.

The operator said its decision was in response to growth in demand for leisure travel.

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