It could probably still stop at Horley, and cross at the junction south of Earlswood but could demand at the stations between Horsham and Horley effectively fill a half-hourly 12-car 700?
I agree that the Horsham Thameslink is too slow to be useful for London travel from stations south of Horley. Presumably this proposal would involve axeing the Gatwick Express - I'm fairly sure that the GX is remaining for the foreseeable future (too much of a money spinner) but in an ideal world the paths could certainly be better utilised.
I've previously suggested something similar, what'd I do is run the Peterborough to Horsham services to Gatwick via the Quarry Line as you suggest, but terminate them at Gatwick off-peak with extensions to Eastbourne, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis* in the peaks (replacing the London Bridge peak extras).
Running Sussex coast commuter trains anywhere near the ECML with the current timetable is a disaster waiting to happen.
Slowing down the Horsham stopper even further without giving Crawley a faster service? What would be the point of using the Quarry line on the Peterborough service then?
Yes they did. And with passenger numbers in the core now much, much higher, their door cycle time, and narrower door width (and lack of standbacks) means passenger alighting / boarding time would be longer than it was back then.
I think that 8tph of express services from Victoria to Gatwick formed of 2tph to each of Portsmouth, Littlehampton, Brighton and Eastbourne is enough to cater for demand, while the express service from Gatwick via Thameslink could do with being upped from 4tph to 6tph.
Is there proof of the 387s being as slow as you suggest? I never recall this.
The 700s can do this in 30 if pressed, so 60 seconds. Fantastic!
But if this is a combination of the Luton and Gatwick airport expresses, surely commuting volumes wouldn’t affect this so much?
Going northbound in the peaks there is always a 7.5 minute gap between the 12/42 Bedford service and the 19/49 Kentish Town service.
My ideas are just maintaining the status quo between Three Bridges and Horsham, I suppose the Peterborough services could run to Horsham in addition to the stoppers but I don't think the local links should be completely removed. The point of running the Peterborough service via the Quarry Line is to provide more services from Gatwick to the more popular destinations, which are London Bridge and the Thameslink core stations.
People at those stations can simply change at Gatwick if they want a faster service. Shouldn’t really come at the expense of the Redhill line where this isn’t applicable
I think people can similarly change at Gatwick and East Croydon from the alternative setup. And we should be looking for the best overall compromise rather than trying to keep every individual aspect no worse than present.
You guess incorrectly. I use this line every day, from Kentish Town to Blackfriars, and frequently see loadings of trains I’m not taking.
Alright, understood. In which case I must then ask, if the 377/7s (almost identical to 387s) can do voltage changeover in a minute at North Pole, why can’t the 387s do it at Farringdon and City Thameslink.
Because you need to have some form of padding in case something goes wrong.
The Thameslink core currently runs every 2.5 minutes, on a headway of 75 seconds and station dwells of 60 seconds.
I must admit as a former East Grinstead resident, I never quite understood the logic in gaining Thameslink services. (Well, I suppose I used it at least once to escape the place and never look back)
As a current Sutton Loop resident, I've always supported terminating the Sutton loop services at the Blackfriars bay platforms. (and then transfer the services to Southern or London Overground operation).
