Southern class 313/455 plan post pandemic

[387star]

Was there a plan for their replacement if passenger numbers hadn't fallen enough to allow them to retire with no replacement?

 

[CarrotPie]

Passenger numbers hadn't fallen enough to allow them to retire with no replacement. Services in Saaff Larndon have been cut so much that TfL is considering stepping in and running the Overground to London Bridge.

 

[PGAT]

There’s no such plan on the cards AFAIK. DfT budget cuts have crushed any dreams of a pre-pandemic service regardless of the status of the fleet.

 

[Sutton in Ant]

The only chance that Southern would get replacements was if GN would get extra rolling stock as they did a tender for an additional 21 to 30 4-car rolling stock. Then it could release the 387s to go to Southern Railway. I hope and pray.

 

[JonathanH]

Then it could release the 387s to go to Southern Railway. I hope and pray.

It is all very well hoping and praying for more rolling stock at Southern, but which services are you hoping get introduced or lengthened? There seems to be a stable timetable in place now.

 

[PGAT]

It is all very well hoping and praying for more rolling stock at Southern, but which services are you hoping get introduced or lengthened? There seems to be a stable timetable in place now.

In fairness the current timetable leaves a lot to be desired. Axing the semi-fast Horsham/Dorking services and shortening most trains to 5 cars means capacity from Epsom to Victoria is only about 30% of what it was in the off-peak, for example.

 

[JonathanH]

In fairness the current timetable leaves a lot to be desired. Axing the semi-fast Horsham/Dorking services and shortening most trains to 5 cars means capacity from Epsom to Victoria is only about 30% of what it was in the off-peak, for example.

Yes, but the timetable in no way needs to be defined or considered in terms of what ran in February 2020.

Running 5-car trains from Epsom to Victoria means there are still 600 seats an hour on this route, and Epsom still has 6 trains an hour off peak to London.

 

[PGAT]

When accounting for the other stations along the route (basically all of them vice Horsham, Balham etc) that are more dependent on this specific service, you can see how those 5 cars get filled up quickly. From my observations, the only times an improvement isn’t really justified is for southbound departures in the middle of the day.