Southeastern today announced that it will be running special, direct High Speed services to take passengers to and from The Open at Royal St George’s.
“Whenever The Open comes to Royal St George’s, we welcome a large number of enthusiastic spectators from London and the surrounding area,” said Peter Dawson, Chief Executive of The R&A.
“This new service brings The Open Championship closer to the capital than ever before, and we hope that it will encourage more people to enjoy a day at golf’s oldest Major.”
These services to Sandwich will run between the 14th and 17th of July and will almost halve the journey time of existing Mainline direct services, cutting travelling time from 135 minutes on the existing services to just 80.
There will be two direct High Speed services an hour going to Sandwich during the morning from St Pancras International and two services an hour back from lunchtime onwards. This will help transport many of the expected 180,000 spectators to the Championship throughout the four days.
There will also be an additional Mainline service each hour to Sandwich during this period so, with existing services, The Open will be served by four trains an hour. The High Speed services will be via Canterbury or Dover.
Additional early-morning trains from St Pancras International will ensure that spectators can get to the course to see the first tee times.
Tickets for these services and the full timetable will be online from the 21st of April.
Vince Lucas, service delivery director said:
“The Open is the biggest sporting event to take place in Kent, and is a great opportunity to show what the region has to offer. We are determined to help make this important event a success by providing this High Speed service, which is sure to be very attractive for spectators travelling from London.”
Southeastern is also running extra services to help spectators to the Royal Wedding on the 29th April.
