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Does Thameslink require a radical Action Plan?

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LLivery

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There’s some evidence to suggest that many people who have the choice between Kettering and Wellingborough who ‘Pre electric’ travelled from Wellingborough have switched to Kettering to save 10 minutes or so each way. That has the double effect of improving Kettering and depressing Wellingborough.
Makes sense to me.

I think 8tph Kentish Town to St Albans is a good metro service. Especially if it enables a consistent 4tph on Catford - and a predictable inner London route. It could almost be marketed as a tube line - Cricklewood to Elephant, for instance... etc would be an instinctive TL journey for a Londoner to do. TL has never cracked this, and the core is dead during the off peaks - so this use-case has potential to relieve the tube further.

As we've see on the Overground, if something is frequent, visible and well-known, it will be very well patronised. We should aspire to better - and to densification along the route.

This. The suburban stations are nowhere near as busy as they should be. Catford Bridge is far busier than Catford despite very good direct links. Far too often where Thameslink serves as an option, it's the choice of a lower frequency and it puts people off. Having 2tph to the likes of Bromley South, Peckham Rye and Catford is laughable, it should be a decent metro service.
 
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Peregrine 4903

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Makes sense to me.



This. The suburban stations are nowhere near as busy as they should be. Catford Bridge is far busier than Catford despite very good direct links. Far too often where Thameslink serves as an option, it's the choice of a lower frequency and it puts people off. Having 2tph to the likes of Bromley South, Peckham Rye and Catford is laughable, it should be a decent metro service.
There were 4tph pre covid. But services got pulled off peak because of the need to save money. Plus Peckham Rye and Bromley South have a lot of other train services so not really sure what the issue is for those two.
 

LLivery

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There were 4tph pre covid. But services got pulled off peak because of the need to save money. Plus Peckham Rye and Bromley South have a lot of other train services so not really sure what the issue is for those two.

Yes, but Stratford and Tottenham Hale have loads of services too, but I'm not going to say the 2tph West Anglia is remotely suitable. In fact, I'd say having loads of other services is a reason to improve the low frequency routes to encourage connections.

Right now South London's frequency and orbital links are dire, while North/West London has tubes all over the place as well as the NLL. While we put up with 2tph linking our major centres far too often (Peckham-Lewisham-Bexleyheath-Dartford, Bromley-Catford-Peckham-Elephant, Orpington-Lewisham, Richmond-Kingston, Sutton-Wimbledon). All of these are busy bus routes for parts or several sections of their routes and having lived locally for 20 years, I know if you're going from Catford to Bromley, the first thing you think of are the 208/320 buses - that's the issue. TL is spread too thin, doing too much while not doing the job well.
 
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GordonT

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Are delays incurred by awaiting drivers to take over journeys at Finsbury Park still much of a problem?
This evening -
9J52: 1625 Horsham-Peterborough delayed for 30 minutes on Platform 5 at Finsbury Park awaiting a driver.
9J54: 1655 Horsham-Peterborough “caught up” with 9J52 and was itself delayed by about 9 minutes on Platform 7 at Finsbury Park.
9J51: 1654 Peterborough-Horsham was delayed 16 minutes on Platform 2 at Finsbury Park awaiting a driver.
 
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