Hastings MP welcomes faster London train following her campaign

The faster service, which lauches in December, will call at Hastings, Warrior Square, Battle, and Tunbridge Wells before arriving in London after just 78 minutes.

The MP has been banging the drum for a faster train for months, launching a residents’ survey which saw thousands of responses in favour of a faster train.

Helena Dollimore says she took her campaign to the highest levels of Government, meeting with the Rail Minister to discuss her proposals, and winning the support of the Secretary of State for Transport.

She said: “It is brilliant news for our area. Securing a faster train service for our town has been one of my top priorities as our local MP. When we are almost the same distance from London as Brighton, why should our train take twice as long?

"This new service is great news for commuters and for our local shops, hotels, pubs, and restaurants that rely on tourists coming down to visit us.

“The service will call at Hastings, St Leonards Warrior Square, Battle, and Tunbridge Wells before arriving in London after just 78 minutes. The train will run Monday-Friday, with one in the morning, one in the evening.

“This new fast train will be a pilot service. If we want it to stay, we all must use it to show the demand. I will keep pushing for better transport services in our area, including reopening Ashford International to cross-channel trains, pushing for action on missed connections on the Marshlink, and upgrading the track connecting Ashford, Rye, Hastings, Eastbourne and Brighton.”

Scott Brightwell, South Eastern Railway’s Safety, Planning and Performance Director said: "We know how important fast and frequent services are to our customers and are constantly looking at how we can deliver better services that meet the needs of the communities we serve. This new Hastings Express service will shave 14 mins off the journey into London in the morning. An additional return service in the evening, will save a similar amount of time against the average of evening peak services.

“We are a growing railway and looking forward to trialling these new services to assess their demand and benefit to customers.

"It's also part of a much bigger package of improvements in December. We're providing more trains to Tunbridge Wells, Ashford and Maidstone East, creating a more frequent Metro network across south-east London and delivering improvements on other routes across Kent and East Sussex."