On 1 February 2021 a landslip was reported just to the north of High Brooms station and services between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells were soon suspended. Network Rail has now announced that the line will be closed for repairs until Saturday 20 February. They’ve told us that a 120 metre section of the line is affected and that they need to move around 5,000 to 6,000 tons of earth and to fully reshape the slope of the cutting. From 15 to 19 February the whole line between Tonbridge and Robertsbridge is being taken out of action to allow repairs to Wadhurst Tunnel to be carried out at the same time.
Meanwhile, Southeastern has announced not one but two new timetables. Despite the relatively more positive news about the pandemic, each of these will see a cut in services. This reflects the lack of agility of the railway and its planning systems to respond to events. Just as the latest lockdown came into effect at the start of the year, Southeastern actually started a new timetable which increased services. It’s now reducing them again, in two stages. The first set of cuts took effect on 8 February and the second, more severe, round of cuts will take place on 22 February – some 7 weeks after the latest national lockdown started! We’ve pointed out that passengers will find this bizarre. With schools hopefully set to return on 8 March, train services will be cut to the bone just as lockdown is about to ease and passengers start to return. If it takes a further 7 weeks to get services back up to reasonable strength, then we may see some very serious practical problems such as overcrowding.
The combination of the landslip and the timetable changes is not a good one. In the first few days after the landslip a good service was retained between Tonbridge and London because the half hourly trains which would normally run to and from Tunbridge Wells continued to run between Tonbridge and Charing Cross. These services were destined to be cut from the timetable in off-peak hours from 8 February, but in the event Southeastern has retained one of the pair as a Tonbridge-Charing Cross shuttle. This gives three trains an hour between Tonbridge and London, as opposed to the four that would have run if the landslip hadn’t happened. There is only one off-peak train an hour at Hildenborough. A more serious concern is that the timetable on 22 February is designed to reduce the train service between Tonbridge and London to just two trains an hour – one from Ramsgate and Ashford and one from Hastings. If the landslip isn’t fixed on time then me might be left with just one train an hour between Tonbridge and London!
Southeastern now appears to be operating at the behest of the Treasury and cutting services heavily in an effort to save the Government money. We think the cuts on 22 February go too far. They also include a cull of all direct the rush hour services between Tonbridge and Cannon Street. We cannot tell the exact extent of the cuts in the rush hour because Southeastern has provided only vague notes and not actual timetables. They’ve also shown little interest in working with us, despite us making constructive suggestions about how to minimise the impact on passengers. In fact, Southern has been much better at engaging with us and is preserving a full service on the Tonbridge-Redhill line.
There is one ray of hope in the 22 February timetable. Direct services between Tonbridge and Maidstone West (and Strood) will once again run though to Tonbridge in off-peak hours. Regular readers will be aware that direct trains were withdrawn in September, with the vast majority of Medway Valley Line trains turning around at Paddock Wood. While we would like to think that the restoration of through services to Tonbridge is a victory for common sense, we suspect it will only be a temporary reprieve. The service from 22 February is so sparse that connections would almost certainly have been dreadful without trains running through to Tonbridge, so Southeastern has been forced to act.
This is a difficult time on the railway and we understand that’s sensible to scale back services to some extent while fewer people are travelling. However, the cuts appear to go too far, especially with the trajectory of the pandemic appearing to ease. Let’s just hope the landslip is fixed on time and that both the Government and Southeastern take a more passenger-focused approach in the weeks ahead.
Summary of timetable changes
The table below summarises the 8 February timetable and what is currently known about the 22 February timetable. Southeastern has provided only incomplete notes about 22 February changes and not full timetables.
| Route | Service from 8 February to 19 February (with impact of landslip) | Service from 22 February (assuming landslip fixed) |
| Paddock Wood to London | Peak: half hourly all day to/from Charing Cross with one train to Cannon Street in the morning and one back in the evening Off-Peak: half hourly to/from Charing Cross | Peak: half hourly to/from Charing Cross; no trains to or from Cannon Street (one train early morning pre-peak) Off-Peak: hourly to/from Charing Cross |
| Tonbridge to London | Peak: four trains an hour to/from Charing Cross with one train to Cannon Street in the morning and one back in the evening Off-Peak: three trains an hour to/from Charing Cross | Peak: six trains an hour to/from Charing Cross; no trains to or from Cannon Street (two trains early morning pre-peak) Off-Peak: two an hour to/from Charing Cross |
| Hildenborough to London | Peak: half hourly to/from Charing Cross with one train to Cannon Street in the morning and one back in the evening Off-Peak: hourly | Peak: half hourly to/from Charing Cross; no trains to or from Cannon Street (one train early morning pre-peak) Off-Peak: unclear (“a few London Charing Cross to Hastings services will call additionally at Hildenborough”) |
| Medway Valley line | Hourly service between Paddock Wood and Strood | Hourly service between Tonbridge and Strood |
| Tonbridge and Paddock Wood to Ashford | Half hourly all day | Peak: half hourly Off-Peak: hourly |
| Tonbridge to Hastings | Updated 14 February 2021 to reflect service from 15 February 2021 Buses Tonbridge-Robertsbridge due to landslip Train shuttle Robertsbridge-Hastings (two trains an hour all day) | Peak: half hourly Off-Peak: hourly |
| Tonbridge-Redhll line | Normal service | To be confirmed but apparently normal service |