When I first moved to Forest Hill 20 years ago there used to be off-peak through trains to Charing Cross every day (2 per hour Monday - Saturday and 1 per hour on Sunday). I seem to remember services were cut back to evenings and Sundays only when Charing Cross station was reburbished back in the 90's, which I think necessitated some of the platforms being closed. Of course when all the work was finished the off-peak Mon -Sat day service never resumed. Also I think there is a limit on how many trains per hour can use Charing Cross, and as our line is only 1 of a few routes that are operated out of Charing Cross by Southern I guess South Eastern get more preference. There must be a capacity problem at Charing Cross as well because I've heard that since the winter timetables were introduced in December South Eastern have switched some Charing Cross services to Cannon St instead.

Don't forget as well that the Thameslink project is going to reduce services going to/through London Bridge so whilst I support the idea of more through services to Charing Cross I fear the chances of us getting them are close to 0!