Fellow Hertford Loop user here.
We were promised a 'metro' like service on these with the introduction of the new trains and all we've had is less frequency (2 TPH instead of 3 with the 313s) Less peak services that are completely rammed by Winchmore Hill.
It is a bit of a joke when you consider that the aim with the 717s was to run a 10tph peak service as far as Gordon Hill... and yet even in December this year the full 2019 frequencies will still not be restored. There will be '4tph' off-peak Mon-Sat, but with no 4tph in the early mornings and late evenings, no 4tph to Welwyn, and no 8tph peak as far as Gordon Hill. And indeed it takes just one Welwyn cancellation in the morning peak for a train full of people from Hertford, Gordon Hill, Winchmore Hill and Palmers Green (the latter three have about 1.5mil annual passengers each!) to be outright dangerously crowded past Ally Pally. What happened to the 717s magically fixing all the troubles the 313s brought, I wonder...
Probably for the last 6 months the line has been a complete shambles with daily disruptions cancellations faults on trains which now seem to be liability.
To be honest throughout the earlier half of this year, I noticed a considerable decrease in cancellations for silly reasons like a lack of drivers (GTR couldn't solve this problem over the course of over a decade!) off-peak. But the peak didn't really seem to improve, and the 6-month average punctuality in the morning peak certainly leaves something to be desired:
There is little justification for a 6tph service having an average delay of almost 5 minutes. A delay of upwards of 6 minutes or a cancellation is enough to cause dangerous overcrowding thanks to the fact that the peak service is still reduced as compared to 2019.
There are a few factors at play here, and admittedly some of them aren't GTR's fault. First is that the Loop has been littered with temporary speed restrictions lately thanks to all the heatwaves. Network Rail unsurprisingly isn't in a rush to fix these, but it'll be dealt with at some point. The second issue is the everlasting driver problem I mentioned above. When something goes wrong, GTR has essentially zero way of restoring a uniform service, because their control gets overwhelmed and they literally just do not have any drivers in the right places. This reminds the primary cause of cancellations though Moorgate trains are not as heavily affected by this issue as Thameslink for instance. Finally, I've been noticing a fair number of GN trains delayed or cancelled due to issues at Hornsey Depot recently, which I can't really explain for sure, but it's certainly not normal.
Today the morning service has ceased to exist thanks to overrunning engineering works. This, in my opinion, is the single most unacceptable issue affecting the ECML right now. I seriously can't recall any time this year where not a single Sunday morning train to Moorgate has been cancelled or heavily delayed after engineering works. And of course it's not just Moorgate trains that are affected - any train that runs into this is not moving anywhere for a good while.
GTR also has a habit of starting evening peak services short from Finsbury or Ally Pally when issues arise, which is actually a good operational strategy, but the communication is literally non-existent, even when there's enough time to catch a different train to Finsbury.
