Charing Cross and Waterloo East are shut until 16 August, so Sevenoaks trains are running to London Bridge. On Sunday 9 and Sunday 16 August they go to Victoria instead, non-stop as far as Petts Wood.

London Charing Cross and Waterloo East are closed for 22 days until Sunday 16 August, and Sevenoaks trains that normally run into Charing Cross are starting and terminating at London Bridge instead. Normal services resume on Monday 17 August. (Southeastern, Charing Cross and Waterloo East station closures)

The closure is not the end of it. Two of the remaining Sundays, 9 and 16 August, carry extra engineering work between New Cross and Petts Wood on top of the main closure, and on those two days Sevenoaks trains are diverted somewhere different again. There are also further Charing Cross weekend closures booked for 22 and 23 August and 10 and 11 October. (Southeastern, Charing Cross and Waterloo East station closures)

Timeline of the London Charing Cross closure dates affecting Sevenoaks between 26 July and 11 October 2026
Chart by Sevenoaks Online

What runs from Sevenoaks until 16 August

The Grove Park line, which is the Sevenoaks service via Dunton Green, Knockholt, Chelsfield and Orpington, runs to and from London Bridge, with some trains diverted via Lewisham. Cannon Street trains to and from Orpington continue, although a small number of extra peak trains are not running. The last train for stations to Sevenoaks via Grove Park leaves London Bridge at 22.37, and the last for Orpington leaves at 00.59. (Southeastern, Charing Cross and Waterloo East station closures)

The Hastings line, the main line through Sevenoaks, Hildenborough and Tonbridge, runs between London Bridge and Hastings, with some peak hour trains to and from Cannon Street. Trains that normally start or finish at Tunbridge Wells are diverted to London Victoria and call additionally at Bromley South. Last trains for Hastings line stations leave London Bridge at 23.48 and Victoria at 22.23. (Southeastern, Charing Cross and Waterloo East station closures)

On the Maidstone East line, which runs through Otford, Southeastern says trains operate between London Victoria and Maidstone East and that there are no trains from London Bridge via that route. (Southeastern, Planned engineering work)

The 22.37 is the number worth writing down. If you are used to leaving Charing Cross after a late evening in town, the last train home is now earlier and from a different station, and it is a long walk back across the river to find that out on the platform.

The two Sundays that are different

On Sunday 9 August and Sunday 16 August, trains between Charing Cross and Sevenoaks are diverted to run to and from London Victoria, not London Bridge, and run non-stop between Victoria and Petts Wood. (National Rail, Additional changes to London Charing Cross services on Sunday 9 August; National Rail, Additional changes to London Charing Cross services on Sunday 16 August)

On both Sundays the Hastings line trains run between London Bridge and Hastings but go the long way round, diverting via East Croydon and Redhill and running non-stop between London Bridge and Tonbridge. That means those trains do not call at the stations in between, Sevenoaks and Hildenborough included, so if you are heading for Tonbridge or beyond, check which service you are actually on. (National Rail, Sunday 9 August; National Rail, Sunday 16 August)

On 9 August there is a second, separate piece of work on the lines between St Johns, Hither Green and Dartford. Accessible replacement buses run between Lewisham and Orpington and between Greenwich and Sidcup, and seven stations are closed and served only by buses: Hither Green, Grove Park, Elmstead Woods, Chislehurst, Lee, Mottingham and New Eltham. (National Rail, Buses replace trains between Lewisham and Orpington / Sidcup on Sunday 9 August)

Overnight changes this week

Separately, from Monday 3 to Friday 7 August some lines close overnight. The 22.25 and 23.25 London Victoria to Ashford International services are diverted between Otford and Ashford International to run via Sevenoaks, and the 22.44 and 23.44 Victoria to Ashford services only run as far as Maidstone East, stopping additionally at Kemsing, East Malling and Barming. (Southeastern, Amended late night and early morning trains, 3 to 7 August)

Tickets: what is accepted where

You can travel on any reasonable route on the London Underground between London Bridge, Waterloo, Southwark, Victoria, Blackfriars, Cannon Street, Elephant and Castle and Embankment. Most paper tickets will be accepted at TfL gates, but eTickets, sTickets and Smartcards will not be recognised, so Southeastern is putting extra staff at Underground entrances to check them by hand. If you are charged anyway, you can claim it back. (Southeastern, Charing Cross and Waterloo East station closures)

Paper tickets are also accepted on London bus routes 24, 26, 139, 148, 188 and 453, and ticket holders can use Thameslink between Elephant and Castle, London Bridge and St Pancras International, and Southern services to and from London Bridge and Victoria. Southeastern Highspeed is explicitly not treated as a reasonable alternative route, and you will be charged if you use it. (Southeastern, Charing Cross and Waterloo East station closures)

Why the station is shut at all

Network Rail is spending £20m on the approach to Charing Cross. The work includes 1,800 metres of new track and 16 sets of switches and crossings between Charing Cross and Waterloo East, replacing equipment that has been in use since the early 1990s, rebuilding the country end of the platforms at Charing Cross on new foundations, upgrading track drainage at Waterloo East, and structural repairs to the 175-year-old Hungerford Bridge and the footbridge between Waterloo East and Waterloo. Southeastern says the existing track has caused more than 21,000 minutes of delays. (Southeastern, Charing Cross and Waterloo East station closures)

What it means for you

If you commute from Sevenoaks, three things are worth doing before you next travel.

Check the date, not just the route. The service pattern on 9 and 16 August is different from the pattern on a weekday, and a journey planner search made last week will not reflect it. Southeastern’s own advice for the Underground legs is worth repeating: do not automatically pick the fastest option in TfL Go, because a route with fewer changes and simpler interchanges is usually the easier journey even if it looks a few minutes slower. (Southeastern, Charing Cross and Waterloo East station closures)

Second, if you drive to the station, the car parks are working normally but the crowds are not, and our guide to parking in Sevenoaks covers the station car parks and the council long-stay options. Third, note that only part of Sevenoaks station is step-free at the moment while the platform 1 and 2 lifts are renewed, which our update on the lift works sets out.

Our full guide to Sevenoaks train times to London covers the normal timetable, the fastest services and what a season ticket costs, and is the page to come back to from 17 August when the usual pattern returns.

Sources

Image: Arrival at Sevenoaks platform 3 by DS Pugh, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.