Chatham commuter flags overcrowding and heat on morning Southeastern service to St Pancras

A passenger on the 07:24 Southeastern service from Chatham to London St Pancras International has publicly complained about a lack of seats and uncomfortable heat on a six-coach train.

The complaint, posted on social media, demanded that Southeastern either run longer trains, switch on the air conditioning, or fit windows that actually open. No seats available. Sweltering. Whether conditions were quite as bad as described couldn’t be independently verified, and Southeastern hadn’t confirmed any explanation by the time we went to press.

The Class 395 Javelin trains that work the Chatham Main Line to St Pancras run as six-car units as standard — 340 fixed seats, plus 12 tip-ups. Two units can be coupled together to make a 12-car train, but it’s worth noting that a six-coach formation isn’t automatically a short-formed service if that’s what the timetable schedules for the run. Whether the 07:24 that day was rostered for one unit or two wasn’t independently confirmed.

Southeastern says its trains manage ventilation through a mix of air conditioning, vents and opening windows, with the specifics varying by fleet. Whether the air conditioning was actually running on this particular service is, naturally, unknown.

No response from Southeastern to the specific complaint was available at the time of publication.

⚡

Chatham commuter flags overcrowding and heat on morning Southeastern service to St Pancras Quiz

5 questions

Source: @RobbieLammas

Published: 13 October 2026