Unless you've been hiding somewhere under a rock, it won't have escaped your notice that Southeastern train services are changing from January 12th 2015. It's all part of the
Thameslink Programme, known for amusement value as Thameslink 2000, designed to make everything through London Bridge run tickety boo and never ever late. This must be a good thing of course, but the whole thing is going to take years (it's due to finish in 2018) and the biggest disruptions start now.
To be honest, I hadn't really got my head round it at all, and as it's nearly January I thought it might be a good time to try.
I moseyed along to the Thameslink Programme website, which has a lovely feature where you can pick your station and see how the changes in January affect you. Brilliant. Right? No - all it does when you choose Hither Green is tell you your train operator is Southeastern (no, really?!) and direct you to
their amazing website for more info.
Frankly the Southeastern website is as confusing as it's possible to be, and has information on at least three different pages about the January changes, at least some of which I think is actually
wrong. I decided the best plan was to download the timetable and sort it out for myself. Yeah right. For starters, to get services from Hither Green you need two timetable books. Then once you open them they are impossible to understand. I tweeted to that effect and got the following reply from Southeastern themselves almost immediately:
Right.
OK then, off to the National Rail website for me. And this is what I have managed to ascertain:
Morning Services to Charing Cross
06:29 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 6 06:50
06:38 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 2 07:02
06:56 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 2 07:18
06:58 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 1 07:23
07:16 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 6 07:37
07:19 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 5 07:44
07:36 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 4 07:58
07:39 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 2 08:04
08:02 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 3 08:24
08:15 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 3 08:36
08:22 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 1 08:44
08:38 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 6 09:03
08:42 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 2 09:05
08:55 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 5 09:20
09:08 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 1 09:32
09:16 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 3 09:37
09:37 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 5 09:58
09:42 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 3 10:03
None of these trains will stop at London Bridge. (Hip Hip Hurray!)
Morning Services to Cannon Street
06:46 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 3 07:10
06:49 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 1 07:08
07:08 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 5 07:26
07:11 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 1 07:34
07:28 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 1 07:45
07:32 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 4 07:56
07:49 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 2 08:10
07:53 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 1 08:18
08:12 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 6 08:37
08:32 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 5 08:56
08:50 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 3 09:13
09:00 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 2 09:23
09:19 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 4 09:42
09:28 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 6 09:55
09:49 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 4 10:12
All these trains will stop at London Bridge (enjoy!)
Morning Services to Lewisham
06:38 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 06:42
06:46 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 06:51
06:58 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:03
07:11 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:15
07:19 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:23
07:32 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:36
07:39 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:43
07:53 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:58
07:58 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:03
08:12 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:16
08:18 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:22
08:32 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:37
08:38 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:42
08:50 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:54
08:55 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:00
09:00 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:04
09:19 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:23
09:28 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:32
09:49 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:53
Ooh lots of trains to Lewisham, exciting.
Morning Services to Blackfriars
07:58 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Blackfriars [BFR] Platform 3 08:29
08:18 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Blackfriars [BFR] Platform 3 08:48
All new and exciting! Woo! (Not. The 07:58 replaces the 07:58 to Charing Cross). The 08:18 might be new though - can any train geeks confirm or deny?
Morning Services to Victoria
Aha ha ha! You're having a laugh aren't you? This will only happen if something goes wrong somewhere...
So there you have it. Everything you wanted to know about morning services from Hither Green into town on a weekday. For anything else there's
nationalrail.co.uk.