A petition signed by hundreds of people has helped secure an increase in the number of trains running to London.

Kent commuters will now be able to get on an additional service to Charing Cross during rush hour.

MP Laura Trott has been campaigning for more trains to be added to the fast line through Otford and Swanley.

A petition was created and signed by more than 1,000 people.

As a result, Southeastern has announced there will be an extra service from Maidstone East to Charing Cross during the morning rush.

The train will depart from Maidstone East at 7.43am – calling at West Walling, Borough Green and Wrotham, Otford, Swanley, London Bridge and Waterloo East.

It will arrive at Charing Cross at 8.47am.

The changes will be added to a new timetable, which will implemented from Sunday, December 10.

Ms Trott, MP for for Sevenoaks and Swanley, updated her constituents in a Facebook post yesterday.

She said: “This is great news and means during the two-hour morning rush-hour period, there will be a half-hourly service to Charing Cross via London Bridge.

“I am incredibly grateful to all of you who signed my petition, because without your support, this would not have happened.”

She added: “It is equally important this half-hourly service is replicated during the evening rush hour.

“I will therefore continue to argue the case for these additional trains.”

Steve White, managing director at Southeastern, said in a letter that the company was “pleased to see” the service was making a “positive difference” to her constituents.

It went on to say: “We continue both to listen to customer and stakeholder feedback and to monitor customer demand to inform future service changes.

“We will continue to keep services under review for future timetable changes and thank you for your engagement.”