Southeastern

New High Speed service introduced for Maidstone
_______________________________________________________________

date 18 March 2011
source Southeastern
type Press release

Broadstairs Services Increased To 12 Carriages

LONDON, 18 March 2011: Southeastern today announced the start of a new High Speed service from Maidstone to St Pancras International via Strood on a trial basis. The trial service will commence on 23 May and comes as a result of changes on the North Kent line to improve punctuality of existing services.

Vince Lucas, service delivery director said, “We’re pleased to be able to introduce this new service from Maidstone West to London. The new service will provide the people of Maidstone with an alternative way of getting into London each morning. It will also help improve the reliability and punctuality of services along the North Kent and Sidcup lines into London by reducing the number of trains running through the Rochester area, as experience has shown this is vulnerable to congestion and delays.”

The new service will consist of three departures from Maidstone West in the morning at 06.56, 07.26 and 07.56. The return journeys will depart St Pancras International at 17.14, 17.44 and 18.14. The new services will call at Strood, Gravesend, Stratford International and St Pancras International with journey times of approximately 50 minutes.

There will also be one service in the morning departing St Pancras International at 06.25 to Maidstone West. In the evening there is one service departing at 19.13 from Maidstone West to St Pancras International. Passengers will continue to be able to travel twice an hour from Maidstone West to St Pancras International in 59 minutes changing at Strood.

To introduce this new service, existing services to and from Rochester and Faversham will be diverted. To ensure that Rochester receives the same number of trains, the current Broadstairs services* will call additionally at Rochester. These services will be increased to 12 carriages to accommodate the additional passengers.

Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and the Weald, said, “This is welcome news for Maidstone commuters. My fellow Kent MPs and I have made considerable efforts to gain something positive from Southeastern and they have clearly acknowledged more needs to be done to support our commuters. Whilst I understand this is still not the return of the much missed city service and that St Pancras will not be the ideal destination for many, this is a good start.”

Bryan Sweetland, Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways & Waste at Kent County Council, said, “ Kent County Council strongly supports this initiative by Southeastern. Commuters from Maidstone have suffered from a worse rail service since December 2009, and the delivery of this peak period High Speed service direct to Stratford and St Pancras will be warmly welcomed. KCC will continue to argue the case for an all day High Speed service in the new franchise which is due to be awarded in 2014”.

Dave Ward, Network Rail’s route director for Kent said: “Passengers in Maidstone rely on rail for over 2.2 million journeys every year. The introduction of this trial High Speed service will increase capacity and allow passengers in Maidstone to travel to a wider number of destinations, as well as helping us run a more reliable service.”

“We’d like to also thank the local MPs, Kent County Council and Maidstone Borough Council for their support in helping us introduce this new service. It will initially be a trial and will be reviewed in time for the December 2011 timetable change,” Vince Lucas concluded.

Morning Peak

07.07 Rochester to St Pancras International will start from Maidstone West at 06.56
07.35 Rochester to St Pancras International will start from Maidstone West at 07.26
08.07 Rochester to St Pancras International will start from Maidstone West at 07.56
06.25 St Pancras International to Rochester is diverted to Maidstone West arriving at 07.12

Evening Peak
17.14 St Pancras International to Rochester is diverted to Maidstone West arriving at 18.02
17.44 St Pancras International to Faversham is diverted to Maidstone West arriving at 18.32
18.14 St Pancras International to Faversham is diverted to Maidstone West arriving at 19.05
18.58 Faversham to St Pancras International will start from Maidstone West at 19.13

For more details on the new services please visit www.southeasternrailway.co.uk

-ends-

* Services from Broadstairs
0600, 0630 & 0700 Broadstairs to St Pancras International will call additionally at Rochester at 0702, 0732 & 0802 respectively and these trains will now be formed of 12 cars.
1727, 1755 & 1825 St Pancras International to Broadstairs will call additionally at Rochester arriving at 1804, 1829, 1901 respectively and these trains will now be formed of 12 cars

For further information please contact:
Jon Hay-Campbell
Media Relations Manager
Southeastern
Tel: 020 7620 5080
Email: jon.hay-campbell@southeasternrailway.co.uk

About Southeastern:
Southeastern runs train services into London from Kent and East Sussex, operating some 1800 trains a day, carrying more than 400,000 passengers a day, serving 176 stations and covering 480-miles of railway infrastructure.

Southeastern is owned by Govia, a joint venture between the Go-Ahead Group (65 per cent) and Keolis (35 per cent).

Govia is the most enduring partnership between transport operators delivering rail franchises in this country.

It is the UK’s busiest rail operator, responsible for 28.7 per cent of UK passenger rail journeys through its three rail companies, Southern, Southeastern and London Midland. Further information on Govia is available at: www.govia.info

Go-Ahead Group plc is one of the UK's leading providers of passenger transport services operating in the bus, rail and aviation services sectors.

Keolis is a French-based operator of transport services in Europe and Canada and is owned by AXA Private Equity, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, SNCF and Keolis management.

Jon Hay-Campbell
Media Relations Manager
Southeastern
Friars Bridge Court
41-45 Blackfriars Court
London
SE1 8PG

T: 020 7620 5080 I M: 07792 750 635 I W: www.southeasternrailway.co.uk

E: jon.hay-campbell@southeasternrailway.co.uk


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Southeastern is a wholly owned subsidiary of Govia Ltd, which is part of The Go-Ahead Group plc and Keolis. The information herein, including any transmitted files, is confidential; intended for the addressee only; and contains only the personal views of the author. The Go-Ahead Group plc and its subsidiaries shall not be bound by anything herein and shall not be liable for any losses as a result of virus transmission, although endeavours are made to protect against this. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the originator.

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Railhub Archive ::: 2011-03-18 SEA-002