Rochester to London Bridge commute

[Parker123]

Hi,
We’re planning on moving to Rochester ME1 this year, and will both continue to work in London. My husband needs to get to London Victoria, direct trains seem really regular so he doesn’t seem that phased by the idea.

However I need to commute to London Bridge daily. London Bridge is in a bit of a state at the moment anyway with all the works going on. I just wondered if anyone else does this commute daily and has any advice on how crowded the trains are (would I ever get a seat from Rochester?), any regularly experienced delays, etc.

Preferred trains as follows:
6.41 from Rochester to London Bridge
17.56 from London Bridge to Rochester

The 6.41 from Rochester starts at Faversham, stopping at Teynham, Sittingbourne, Newington, Rainham (Kent), Gillingham (Kent), Chatham, and then Rochester is the last stop before London Bridge (there seem to be only about one direct train per hour with the quickest journey time of 40 mins)

Train from London Bridge to Rochester in the evening will most often be the 17.56 – starting at Cannon Street before arriving at London Bridge.

I know there’s Rochester’s new station opening in December with the promise of longer trains, hopefully this will make a difference to being able to get a seat (However I’ve been told no additional trains to London Bridge will be added to the timetable).
Other options might be changing at Chatham (or walking to Chatham station).

If anyone can give an insight into travel from Rochester to London Bridge that would be much appreciated. I’ll be doing trial myself in a few weeks but a heads up would be great.

Many thanks for reading this post.

 

[notadriver]

I don't think those trains are as crowded as they used to be and there will always be seats available towards the rear.

 

[telstarbox]

Most of the problems at London Bridge occur on the Southern rather than Southeastern services - I commute via London Bridge or Waterloo East and punctuality is pretty good.

Note that your trains above won't call at London Bridge from August 2016, but the Charing Cross trains will instead so that shouldn't affect you too much.

 

[user15681]

I feel I can offer my perspective quite accurately as I travel from Rochester some days - other days I travel from slightly further down the line, but still through Rochester. I go to Blackfriars and Victoria more often than London Bridge/Cannon Street, but still do that route often (more so in the evenings).

Firstly, for your husband, trains to Victoria are very often - every half an hour for a fast service and every hour for a slow service, and then a handful of extra slow stopping services during the peak times. Once the new station at Rochester is open (December), services to Victoria which currently run fast from Chatham (hence not stopping at Rochester) will start to stop there - i.e 06:50, 07:20 and 07:50 fast services.

In terms of crowding, for the both of you, peak trains into London are generally full by Rochester. You may, just may, be lucky enough to get a seat sometimes, but I'd say more often than not it'd be standing only. Lots of passengers get on at Chatham and take the last few empty seats.

That said, the 06:41 from Rochester to London Bridge is a 10 car service and slightly before the main peak period, so shouldn't be as busy. I must admit, the 06:41 is the only morning peak departure I've never caught, so I can't personally say how busy it is. It's most likely pretty full but I should imagine seats are available, particularly towards the rear.

The 17:56 from London Bridge I catch fairly often (albeit from Cannon Street), although I only ever travel in the front few coaches as they tend to be emptier. There are normally a handful of seats still available at London Bridge, so if you stand at the end of the platform where the front of the train will be you may just get one if you're first getting on.

A big thing to be aware of is that from August 2016 until January 2018, those fast Cannon Street trains will no longer stop at London Bridge. The 06:41 from Rochester will still exist, but it won't stop at London Bridge, so the first stop would be Cannon Street at 07:26ish. Trains from Rochester to Charing Cross will stop at London Bridge, but these are slower and so (based on a proposed timetable) you'd be looking at a 06:01 from Rochester to Dartford (arr 06:29), then changing to the 06:35 from Dartford which would get to London Bridge at 07:17 around the same time as the current 06:41 would do.

The only delays/incidents that occur often is congestion approaching London Bridge. Some mornings this can add a few minutes or so of delay, simply because you're in a queue of trains waiting to get into a platform - it's never normally more than 5 minutes max though and isn't an everyday thing.

I'm a bit obsessive (some would say sad!) and log my journeys so can give some numbers. My average delay since the start of the year (195 journeys), for journeys between Rochester and Victoria/Blackfriars/London Bridge/Cannon Street (the route between Rochester and Victoria/Blackfriars is half shared with the route between Rochester and London Bridge/Cannon Street, so valid to include) is 2.29 minutes. My average delay specifically between Rochester and Cannon Street (less journeys, so less representative/accurate) is 5.24 minutes - however some of those delay minutes are accumulated between London Bridge and Cannon Street, so the average delay between Rochester and London Bridge would be less.

I hope that sums it up pretty nicely. Bear in mind if you're doing a trial of it (a good idea!), that trains can be very slightly emptier during the holidays, although you should still get a fairly accurate idea.