Hayes Line



The Hayes Line is the railway service in south east London, United Kingdom operated by Southeastern between Charing Cross or Cannon Street and Hayes in the London Borough of Bromley. Part of its route follows the Mid-Kent Railway.

The line was electrified with other SECR urban routes in 1926 by Southern Railway.

During the planning of the Fleet line, now the Jubilee line it was intended that the line would continue on from Charing Cross and then travel through Central London with stations at Aldwych, Ludgate Circus (City Thameslink), Cannon Street and Fenchurch Street then taking over the East London line continuing to Lewisham; a further extension envisaged from Lewisham to Hayes and Addiscombe was planned by taking over the Hayes line from the National Rail network. However, after many changes, the Fleet line was renamed the current Jubilee line and eventually took a completely new alignment from Green Park and today the Jubilee platforms at Charing Cross are no longer in use.

Description of the route

 * Services commence at either Charing Cross via Waterloo East, or Cannon Street.
 * London Bridge - North Kent Junction, Bermondsey: The pioneer London and Greenwich Railway opened its line on 8 February 1836. This section is built on a brick viaduct
 * North Kent Junction - Lewisham: opened 30 July 1849 as the North Kent Railway, now called the North Kent line. Most of the railway here is in cutting with the four tracks passing through St Johns railway station, the two northernmost leading into Lewisham station.
 * Lewisham - New Beckenham: opened 1 January 1857 as the Mid-Kent line. This opening created a junction at Lewisham.
 * New Beckenham - Elmers End: opened on 1 April 1864 as part of an extension of the Mid-Kent line to Addiscombe
 * Elmers End - Hayes: this section was built by the West Wickham & Hayes Railway, but was sold to the South Eastern Railway on opening day, 29 May 1882

Off Peak weekday and Saturday Services

 * London Charing Cross to Hayes (non stop between London Bridge and Ladywell), two trains per hour
 * London Cannon Street to Hayes, all stations, two trains per hour

Sunday services
London Charing Cross to Hayes, all stations

Peak services and other services

 * Elmers End to London Charing Cross, all stations
 * Hayes to London Charing Cross, fast between Catford Bridge and London Waterloo East
 * New Beckenham to London Cannon Street
 * Hayes to London Cannon Street
 * Beckenham Junction to London Charing Cross, one train a day, calls at New Beckenham, Catford Bridge, Ladywell then non stop to London Waterloo East
 * When there are engineering works that affect Charing Cross and Cannon Street, trains are generally diverted to nearby London Victoria trains call at all stations to Lewisham then run non stop to Victoria.

The Strategic Rail Authority had proposed replacing the 2tph to Charing Cross services with Cannon Street services, therefore making it solely 4tph to Cannon St. However, following pressure from local groups it is understood that from December 2009 trains will still run to both Charing Cross and Cannon Street.

Bakerloo Line take over
By the end of the 2020s, it is fully expected that the Bakerloo line extension will involve taking over the line, displacing all current train services, this will mean that passengers on the line will no longer have a train service to Charing Cross or Cannon Street, the Beckenham Junction branch will also be incorporated into the new extended line, the line will also be extended northward to Watford Junction possibly by 2020, this will mean a new South East to North West London tube link, Transport for London favor this route for the extended Bakerloo line because the line is largely self-contained after Lewisham.

Future Plans
More recently Network Rail's Kent Route Utilisation Strategy, published in 2010 envisages the ultimate incorporation of the Hayes Line into an extended Bakerloo Line. An alternative plan has also been put forward by the Brighton Main Line 2 (BML2) pressure group to use the line as part of an alternative route from Sussex to London. This would involve re-opening the old link from Sanderstead to Elmers End and avoid the railway bottleneck at East Croydon.