Plans to provide Kent’s rail passengers with a new link to London have been shelved.

Ten years ago, promises were made that Maidstone would soon be connected to the new Thameslink services, providing regular fast services, not only to the north of the capital, but also beyond to Cambridge.

They were due to start in January 2018, then May of that year, then December, then December 2019. The government stopped giving updates after that.

By 2021, there was still no sign of its happening when KCC prepared its draft rail strategy, but there was overwhelming support from locals.

In December, Southeastern announced a raft of changes to its services including the scrapping of First Class tickets and they included the introduction of a new sub-one-hour service linking Maidstone East to Charing Cross, stopping at London Bridge, and also increased peak services on the Ashford line.

The changes were greeted as good news by many commuters, although at the same time, the existing direct service to Blackfriars was scrapped, but what we weren’t told was that the dream of the fabled Thameslink connection had been quietly dropped.

The decision only came to light when David Hall, the chairman of Bearsted Parsh Council, submitted a Freedom of Information request to Southeastern, which since October 2021, has been run by the government.

Cllr Hall was concerned that as a consequence of the improved Maidstone East to Charing Cross service, off-peak services from stations east of Maidstone such as Bearsted, had been halved.

During his correspondence with Southeastern, he received the following response from the company’s FOI officer: “The current timetable consists of one train per hour between Ashford and Victoria calling at all stations to Otford, and one train per hour between Maidstone East and Charing Cross, running semi-fast.

“The Charing Cross service was introduced in December 2022 as a replacement for the Thameslink services which were due to commence in 2018.”

Cllr Hall said: “It’s appalling. Who knew that? A decision has apparently been taken that we are not to get a Thameslink service, but no announcement has been made. Instead, it has been completely buried.”

When KentOnline asked Govia Thameslink Railway this week what plans there were to bring Thameslink services to Maidstone, their spokesperson, Francesca Boyd, confirmed: “Thameslink services to Maidstone are not currently in development.”

She explained: “Since December 2022, Southeastern services between Maidstone East, London Bridge and London Charing Cross have been using the potential Thameslink paths in the timetable.”

Cllr Hall said: ”Extra trains to Charing Cross are not a substitute for the promise of Thameslink which would have provided a direct link to the City and then beyond to Luton or Cambridge without having to travel on the underground.”

“Maidstone has been shafted. The Charing Cross service isn’t even really an improvement because it has come at the expense of a reduced service to Victoria. There were two trains to London before the change, and there are two trains after.

Cllr Hall said: “This is such a fundamental change from what was promised, but there has been no discussion, no public consultation.

“Surely we are owed an explanation?”

Kent County Council is currently in the process of preparing its fifth Local Transport Plan, known as LTP5.

It takes an over-arching look at transport - road, rail and cycling - across Kent up till 2031.

The plan has yet to go out to public consultation, but Cllr Ian Chittenden (Lib Dem) said: “There is nothing in there about Thameslink.

“My impression is that any plans for Thameslink connections were dropped three or four years ago, when rail services suffered such a downturn in custom due to Covid.

“At the moment, KCC’s ambition is to persuade Southeastern to extend the Maidstone to Charing Cross service, which currently runs, Monday to Saturday, to include Sundays as well.”

Cllr Hall said that when Maidstone had received its extra Charing Cross service, Bearsted’s off-peak service of two trains per hour had been cut to one - and worse, the remaining train no longer made any sensible onward connections with other services,

He said: “If you want to travel off-peak to Hastings, you must change at Ashford with a 50 minute wait.

“If you want to travel on the Medway Valley line, you must change at Maidstone East, walk over to Maidstone Barracks and wait 30 minutes.

“If you want to travel to Charing Cross, you must change at Maidstone and wait 48 minutes for a connection.

“Nothing links up anymore.”

Cllr Hall said: “We had an agreement for over 20 years that Bearsted would get two trains an hour because we are the stop for Leeds Castle.

“That has just gone by the board, again with no consultation or explanation.”

Mark Willson for Southeastern said: “In order to uplift Ashford and Bearsted to the two trains per hour off-peak as previously operated would require authorisation and funding from the Department of Transport to reinstate the semi-fast paths between Ashford and Victoria.

Who took the decision to drop Thameslink and when?

“The increase in operational costs for track access, electricity and train crew is likely to exceed the revenue generated by the extra trains.

“This would increase the subsidy required to operate services on the network to the detriment of the taxpayer. We continually monitor passenger demand and adapt services in response to changing travel patterns.”

Cllr Hall remains unhappy.

He said: “I want to find out who took this decision to drop Thameslink and when.

“Southeastern won’t tell me, so I will be asking Helen Whately MP to find out.”