‘All spare parts made in Japan’

In messages to passengers seen by the Kentish Express, Southeastern said: “Due to the extent of the damage we’ve had to take one of our 6-carriage units out of service for repair.

“As our high speed trains are built by Hitachi in Japan, all spare parts are manufactured and assembled there. We’re trying very hard to make sure the work is completed as quickly as possible, but it is unlikely this unit will be back in service before the end of December.

“It isn’t possible for us to remove individual carriages on our high speed trains as they come as a unit consisting of six carriages. This is why our high speed services run either with six carriages, or 12.

“As this does leave us short by one 6-carriage unit we’ve had to take the decision to shorten two services from 12 carriages down to six. Originally the decision was made to reduce the 05.46 Margate to St Pancras, and 17.55 St Pancras to Broadstairs services, from 12 carriages to six. But after monitoring both of these services it has been decided to revert these back to having 12 carriages from Monday 5 September.

“We [are] of course still short of one train unit, and it does mean we’ll have to reduce the carriage length of two of our high speed trains. So from Monday 5 September the 06.15 Margate to St Pancras, and the 18.55 St Pancras to Faversham services, will be formed of six carriages instead of 12.

“The decision to shorten these two specific services has been based on our current loading figures over the past year. However, we’ll continue to monitor loading figures so that we can match capacity with demand, and to minimise crowding where possible.

“On some occasions - between now and the end of December - we may be able to release an additional train to strengthen these two services to 12 carriages. However, we feel it’s much better to aim for consistency so that our passengers know which service is going to be formed of six carriages.

“Since its inception in 2009 the high speed service has seen phenomenal passenger growth and in response to demand has been extended to east Kent and Maidstone West and all available units are in service.”