The new Southeastern January 2015 timetable is now available and there are significant changes for DEAL which includes an all day and every day HS loop service which will also provide direct services to Faversham and the Medway towns.
You can download the timetables here.
HS journey times on average are DEAL to St Pancras (via Ashford) 1hr 23mins, DEAL to St Pancras (via Faversham 2hrs 6mins). Fares on the HS Faversham route should be at a discounted rate for DEAL, WALMER, Martin Mill and Sandwich passengers, however I am still waiting for confirmation from Southeastern on this.
The new timetable will give DEAL a huge opportunity to capitalise on tourism, enable greater scope for leisure trips to London and new route opportunities to North Kent. The reduction in off peak mainline services should also reduce signalling delays.
The last weekday HS service from St Pancras will be 23:37 which gets into DEAL at 00:59.
Just think - Deal could have been 1hr 15 minutes - but the time savings at Ashford were handed over to Ebbsfleet to give them extra trains. (although not if you are a commuter from canterbury).
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