Southeastern say it will take time for its new timetable to "bed-in" after changes due to London Bridge work led to overcrowding on trains this week.

Work on the Thameslink programme at London Bridge has meant a new timetable and fewer peak time trains. In addition, Charing Cross trains will no longer call at London Bridge for 18 months.

And the changes have led to a torrent of angry comments online about overcrowded trains along with over-zealous station staff and "bouncers" bossing people around on platforms.

A spokesman for Southeastern said: "It’s very early days for our new timetable, which was introduced on Monday this week. We recognise that it will take a little time for the changes to bed-in and we’re keen to gather our passengers’ views and fed these into a review process that will look at how our new timetable is operating. 

"We need to ensure sufficient time passes for the timetable to settle in and for passengers to adapt to the new travel patterns required during the London Bridge rebuild before we commit to making any changes, but will share details once the review is completed.

"We’d like to thank all of our passengers for their patience during the work to rebuild London Bridge. We are running longer trains where we can to help and have been communicating the timetable changes since June last year. 

"We’ve distributed more than a million leaflets at stations, shared information on our website at southeasternrailway.co.uk and held more than 30 special meet the manager sessions at stations to speak to passengers face-to-face about the changes. 

"We’re continuing to support our customers with a new 24/7 Twitter service, more than 170 extra staff on the frontline at stations and more meet the manager sessions planned for the coming weeks."