Southern reveals winter rail timetable

The new timetable for Southern and Gatwick Express services starts on Sunday December 13 with what Southern describes as significant changes to off-peak services. Some services have been merged or changed and others tweaked by a few minutes. Southern said: “We consulted with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure the December 2015 timetable and beyond meets existing and future passenger needs of as many people and communities as possible.” Highlights of the new timetable, according to Southern, include: The retiming of the Brighton Main Line to provide a more evenly spaced service During the timetable period, new Class 387 Gatwick Express trains will replace the existing Class 442 fleet. These will start to appear in spring 2016 Extending two trains per hour from Gatwick Airport to Brighton Additional services for Earlswood and Salfords Salfords station will be served by the London Bridge to Horsham route services all day on Sundays for the first time outside of the summer months Sunday services between Brighton and Ashford will call at either Three Oaks or Winchelsea New Class 700 trains will be introduced to Thameslink routes during this timetable Reduced journey times on Coastway East, Coastway West, and Arun Valley routes for long-distance passengers A better service for passengers using the Sydenham corridor Increased turnaround times at Victoria will help to reduce reactionary delays A Southern statement says: “Although changes are predominantly off-peak, there is good news for passengers on the 17.23 London Victoria to East Grinstead – this will be lengthened from eight carriages to 10.” Southern Passenger Services Director, David Scorey said: “Our new winter timetable is not only designed with improving performance for our passengers on the very busy Brighton Main Line, but it also starts the important process of working towards the final 2018 Thameslink timetable which will deliver a step-change in capacity and connectivity .” Details of the new timetable can be downloaded from southernrailway.com/december2015 Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live. Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on. 1) Make our website your homepage 2) Like our Facebook page 3) Follow us on Twitter 4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here. And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out! Always the first with your local news. Be part of it.