2019 sparse peak service on the Chatham line

[nw1]

Having looked at Southeastern's current (and quite impressive, given the state of things) offering today, I decided out of curiosity to look back at how the timetable compares with immediate pre-Covid.

To my surprise the evening peak timetable for the smaller stations between Bromley and Rochester (Longfield, Meopham etc) is actually sparser than now. Looking at Table 212 of the GBPTT downloaded from Network Rail.

Currently these stations get an xx12 and xx42 in the peak. In 2019 (May timetable) just one tph, the xx12 in the peak, plus two fasts at xx10 and xx40. So essentially like now, minus the xx42.

Why did these stations get a cut around this time compared to historical services? (Unsure of exact year of change, but in 2013 it was more frequent; looks like there was a significant Chatham recast sometime between 2013 and 2019 while the SEML remained the same). Traditionally (80s and 90s) these stations got approximately a 20-min interval service in the peak.

 

[30907]

I think the answer is: they didn't (although post-HS1 the Chatham evening peak had been altered to a 30min cycle): GBTT was notoriously incomplete for some years (despite IIRC the efforts of forum proofreaders), and in this case trains terminating at Rochester are missing in T212 They are shown correctly in T195 as far as Swanley.

I have kept May 2020 (which of course never happened) and the same is true there.

 

[Mcv378]

I know services were cut and changed on the Chatham Mainline due to the introduction of services over the High Speed line.

 

[nw1]

I think the answer is: they didn't (although post-HS1 the Chatham evening peak had been altered to a 30min cycle): GBTT was notoriously incomplete for some years (despite IIRC the efforts of forum proofreaders), and in this case trains terminating at Rochester are missing in T212 They are shown correctly in T195 as far as Swanley.

I have kept May 2020 (which of course never happened) and the same is true there.

Ah OK, thanks for that - I though it might be the case to be honest as it seemed odd to have just an hourly service during the peak.

In the 2013 edition there's a similar strangeness: a duplicate of a peak hour London Bridge-Redhill service (around 1730 IIRC).