Find quieter trains on Southern Railway

Southern Railway offers a live departure service, which shows how likely you are able to be seated and remain socially distanced. The first service described below will show you departures within 2 hours of the time of your internet search.

Find quieter trains on Southern Railway within 2 hours of departure

A Southern train departing from Bognor Regis Station

How to use the find quieter trains on Southern Railway’s service

Go to the search facility on Southern’s website:

https://www.southernrailway.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/live-departures-and-arrivals

Enter your departure and destination stations and press the Show live departures button.

Look out for an icon of a white head on a green background. The icon will only show if Southern has access to quieter trains from within their database. The icon shows this is usually a quieter service, indicating that you are more likely to find a seat.

Find quieter trains on Southern Railway when planning ahead

Bognor Regis Station

Visit Southern’s train timetable:

https://www.southernrailway.com/coronavirus-information/revised-timetable

Scroll down to Search for timetable by location and from the drop-down list select your departure station.

The service will show you timetables available for the station you have chosen. Click on the timetable of your choice. This will open up the timetable, which is colour coded to show likely seat availability.

To find quieter trains, press the “Key” tab to the far right of the timetable. This will open up an information panel. Towards the bottom of this information panel, you will see Usual seat availability information, which is colour coded as follows:

White: Data unavailable
Dark green: Usually many seats available
Light green: Usually plenty of seats available
Yellow: Usually some seats available
Orange: Usually only a few seats available
Red: Usually standing room only

For the best chance of getting a seat on a quieter train, choose the train showing Usually many seats available.

The following timetables are available on Southern’s timetable page:

Great Northern and Thameslink services (north of London)
Southern and Thameslink South London Metro
Southern (Mainline), Gatwick Express and Thameslink services (south of London)

Things to watch out for when using the find quieter trains on Southern Railway service

This service seems to display better on a desktop computer. When using a mobile phone, you may need to hold your phone horizontally to see all the information.