Southeastern Train schedule changes

If they are giving you a choice of either train, choose the one that suits you; there’s no assigned /reserved seating.

The 10.10 and 10.40 from Victoria go to Canterbury East.

There’s also a 10.10 from Charing Cross that goes to Canterbury West, maybe your ticket is also valid for that train?

Ultimately, it matters little if you get off at East or West.

Canterbury East and West are on opposite sides of the city centre. Use whichever is convenient and has the fastest train.
"It looks like we might have to change trains at Canterbury East to get to Canterbury West" - not possible. It is two totally different lines approaching the city from two different directions. the lines do no interconnect. You cannot get between Canterbury East and West by train.

From Canterbury East all you would have to do is cross the street walk up Canterbury East Station Bridge at the end will be the Roman Wall, turn right and walk to the city center, it’s a ten minute walk.

Thanks for the replies!

"If they are giving you a choice of either train, choose the one that suits you; there’s no assigned /reserved seating."

No offer of changing to either one, just a general email saying "We've posted schedule changes starting May 20"

We are staying at the ABode Canterbury and googlemaps says the walk from Canterbury East is .4 as is Canterbury West.

We are staying near Victoria Station so it's an easy walk there for the 4 of us. I'd rather not take the Underground to another station, but thanks for the suggestion on the service from Charing Cross.

Chris, I did not realize the East and West stations were on separate lines. Thanks for that information.

At Victoria the Southeastern platforms are all at the platforms with the smallest numbers, all the way on the far left. The vast majority of the platforms serve Southern trains, and the last few at the far right are for Gatwick Express.

If you are using Victoria for any other train trips you should know that Southern and its stablemate Thameslink are changing the times of every one of their thousands of trains at the same time, a week on Sunday. It is a true fruit-basket-turn-over. It will be "interesting" to see how they manage.

Thanks Nigel! No other trips from Victoria Station set for this trip but the information is appreciated. We will head to the left when we go thru the barriers.

Just for future reference - is there usually such a huge schedule change in May?

May and December are when the timetable changes. Often there is relatively little change; sometimes it is radical, particularly if there is new infrastructure coming in.

Thanks Marco! I'll know for future reference!

This is the biggest on that network for a very long time. It has the fancy name of "RailPlan 20/20".

Most May and December timetable changes are invisible to the public, just happening behind the scenes. For Southern and Thameslink customers, and for those whose trains run on the same rails, this can be exciting times. We'll see how it all turns out. Well, I hope.

The last really big shakeup was Operation Princess about 15 years ago, involving Virgin Trains and Cross Country. That all went swimmingly well. (like swimming in treacle)

Oh gosh...so glad I am able to participate on the first day of Rail Plan 20/20!