Thameslink Services/Timetable from May 20th 2018

[infobleep]

The number of cancellations this evening is pretty grim, after a better morning.

To take an example: as of 21.00, everything on the Up from Littlehaven is cancelled until at least 22.30. There were hour-plus gaps in the Down service, as well, though these are being plugged by additional calls on Southern’s Pompey/Bognor services, making them even later.

Why did they put in extra calls on the up services?

 

[Failed Unit]

Still not sure why people from WGC unhappy with this service are branded as NIMBYs.

My latest attempt to travel from WGC - Blackfriars fails. As I said previously I used to catch 0859 for this journey. Today 0832 cancelled. So heading for 0822. Nice 37 minute increase on last weeks journey time. Very good for a service we were promised would be direct.

This is the story all week. Cancellations from WGC or no service from Finsbury Park - Blackfriars.

Are the ones that have used it and claim it is nice lucky? Or am I unlucky. Now having to leave a least 30 minutes earlier than last week to avoid cancellations.

How long will this go on for? GTR claim weeks. We know GTRs track record from when the 700s and 387s were introduced. They mean months. How Charles Horton can seriously say to the media he is doing a good job shows the total contempt he has for his passengers and staff.

** now showing the 0832 will run. The inbound is cancelled. Interesting.

 

[FOH]

It took them about 2.5 months to sort out the London Bridge debacle in 2016

 

[infobleep]

Thameslink's Twitter team remind people many times a day that the rear first class on all their services is declassified. In addition to this I have seen the digital screens on Luton-Rainham services say that this section is declassified. So I believe it's likely the member of staff was wrong.

The picture is quite confusing regarding the forward 1st class section. Thameslink have sent two contradictory tweets within an hour of each other today.

Regarding the Luton-Rainham service, they said:

To me this implies it is declassified all the way from Luton to Rainham, including the core.

Then they later Tweeted in a separate conversation:​

To me this implies that the forward first class in in operation Luton - St Pancras, but not the core.

No idea what's going on!

Maybe they were referring to just one perticular train in the first instance.

Out of inteeint are there still a handful of Sutton loop trains that still have first class at the front? They use to be at some random times, which obviously suited them when the trains were running north of London.

 

[infobleep]

No trains on the Sutton loop towards Wimbledon for an hour. That wasn't unheard of before the new timetable though.

They haven't even out up a cancellation notice against the ttainsin question. Perhaps they don't have time due to service disruption.

 

[hwl]

Well that probably won't happen until they feel a need for some good news or their is a franchise change and they need to big it up with something.

I'm being ratherc cynical but I just can't help it.

So was I!. I can't see them taking up the option just for the Rainham services so would expect some extra units to be ordered for shoulder peak improvements etc. (especially some peak only routes which have very narrow peak only planned) and reducing the overall diagramming tightness given the final service plan and then some 8-12car extensions.

DfT cunning managed to reduce the number of cars ordered by 60 with the originally cunning service plan which has now got unravelled with changes to new longer routes such as Rainham and Maidstone E / Ashford (instead of CAT and TAT via East Croydon) which has increased the unit requirement AND swapped planned 8 car routes for what could easily be 12.

 

[Class2ldn]

Are the managers former train drivers or guards who've worked up the ladder?

Well we have local ops managers aswell that do the admin side and they've never set foot in a train cab yet they still think they can tell you what to do.
Under first TL wasn't so bad (for staff) but under govia morale has plummeted .
Got to be the worst company I've ever worked for.

 

[Kanrakuq]

I'm sure passengers in Hitchin, Arlesey, etc., were ecstatic to hear that because of a problem all the way down in Blackfriars, they weren't going to see any northbound trains for stations to Peterborough for more than two hours during the morning rush hour.

Wouldn't be surprised if the one due to come through at 10am-ish, the first since 0755, skip stops anyway, although given that it's 42 minutes late, who knows.

 

[Failed Unit]

I see a lot of managers on the platforms today. Thameslink is not good today. An operational incident between London Bridge and Blackfriars. Assume it is one GTR are accountable for. If it was network rail they would quickly point the finger.

 

[RichJF]

FYI apparently a SouthEastern train has been signalled into the n/bound Blackfriars platform (pl 2) so has completely cocked up the TL timetable.

07:37 Sole St to Blackfriars directed into platform 2 then had to reverse back out to Elephant and Castle & then reverse again to platform 4!

Major delays through the core!

 

[BRX]

I'm sitting on a delayed Sutton loop service waiting to get into Blackfriars from the south. Frustrating, but I have to say it's quite impressive the frequency with which other trains are passing us even though some of them have to cross between lines. The signalling seems to work even if the timetable doesn't (yet).

(Edit - this comment written before reading the post above it!)

 

[Failed Unit]

I'm sure passengers in Hitchin, Arlesey, etc., were ecstatic to hear that because of a problem all the way down in Blackfriars, they weren't going to see any northbound trains for stations to Peterborough for more than two hours during the morning rush hour.

Wouldn't be surprised if the one due to come through at 10am-ish, the first since 0755, skip stops anyway.

I wonder what happened to plan B a GTR evangelist used to preach. I guess as they are incapable of delivering plan A having a backup plan was too much to ask. Bad luck anyone on the Peterborough route heading to London. Best get your cars out.

 

[Kanrakuq]

I wonder what happened to plan B a GTR evangelist used to preach. I guess as they are incapable of delivering plan A having a backup plan was too much to ask. Bad luck anyone on the Peterborough route heading to London. Best get your cars out.

According to Google, I can drive from Arlesey to St Pancras and get there at 1058 with current traffic, which will be six minutes before the next non-cancelled train going south is even due to arrive here.

 

[bramling]

I wonder what happened to plan B a GTR evangelist used to preach. I guess as they are incapable of delivering plan A having a backup plan was too much to ask. Bad luck anyone on the Peterborough route heading to London. Best get your cars out.

A hurrendous morning for certain GN stations.

This needs to stop now, things cannot continue like this.

This morning’s shambles demonstrates that it’s too fragile for certain journeys to rely on a half-hourly Thameslink service. It should be a 50/50 split between Thameslink and Kings Cross so that at least if Thameslink falls over there is an alternative. Those stations relying on the Thameslink service have been hit very hard this week.

RailSham2020.

 

[Kanrakuq]

People on the massively delayed 0813 from Gatwick, now exiting the core 40 minutes late, who want to get to Biggleswade, etc., are in for a fun time. It's skip stopping between Finsbury and Huntingdon, so they've just been dumped there at 1007. The next (also badly delayed) train will pick them up at 1018, but that's skip stopping beyond Hitchin so they'll get turfed out again there at 1043. They will then need to wait for a train currently scheduled to arrive at Hitchin at 1120.

 

[gingerheid]

So far this week there has been a grand total of less than 2 days worth of full Thameslink Core service from Cambridge!

How long can this last before there is an "emergency timetable"?

 

[Taunton]

Statistics seem to be getting worse every day. I wonder how long it will be before Grayling tells GTR to fire Horton, who seems to have completely failed to understand, let alone manage, the situation, and shows zero leadership quality. I'm surprised Sadiq Khan has not yet put the knife into GTR again, like he did two years ago in the London Bridge fiasco.

 

[Silver Cobra]

Hopefully things will have sorted themselves out enough within the next 3 weeks. I'm travelling up to Blackpool from Arlesey on June 18th using the 0755 departure to interchange onto VTEC at Peterborough. While it did run today (it was the last northbound service before the 2-hour 'blackout'), there's nothing to say that it won't be part of a swathe of cancellations if this trend continues.

People on the massively delayed 0813 from Gatwick, now exiting the core 40 minutes late, who want to get to Biggleswade, etc., are in for a fun time. It's skip stopping between Finsbury and Huntingdon, so they've just been dumped there at 1007. The next (also badly delayed) train will pick them up at 1018, but that's skip stopping beyond Hitchin so they'll get turfed out again there at 1043. They will then need to wait for a train currently scheduled to arrive at Hitchin at 1120.

So even worse than the skip-stopping from Stevenage to Huntingdon that I encountered yesterday. Fun times. I hope passengers were warned about it before it left Finsbury Park, rather than just after it left like in my case.

 

[bramling]

Statistics seem to be getting worse every day. I wonder how long it will be before Grayling tells GTR to fire Horton, who seems to have completely failed to understand, let alone manage, the situation, and shows zero leadership quality. I'm surprised Sadiq Khan has not yet put the knife into GTR again, like he did two years ago in the London Bridge fiasco.

Horton needs to do what he is paid for - show some leadership and get on top of this shambles, instead of allowing GTR to keep putting out rubbish downplaying the scale of this mess.

If not then he has to go.

It’s not really for Khan to get involved as the inner suburban service isn’t running too badly. However we already have political figures from further out now becoming involved, and I predict this noise will get louder and louder. GTR et al have one saving grace at the moment, which is that next week is a bank holiday and half term week. Whilst this is a double-edged sword in that it could make coverage even worse, it gives then a slight breather to get something in place to sort this shambles.

 

[NorthKent1989]

I thought passenger numbers were falling?

Falling where?

 

[NorthKent1989]

This is an embarrassment, nearly three decades in the making and so much has gone wrong and that’s just the first week!

Imagine what it’ll be like once the Cambridge-Maidstone service is introduced, perhaps 24toh is too ambitious.

 

[RichJF]

I'd be more than happy for the East Grinstead to be taken out and given back to Southern. Yes it wasn't perfect but billions of times better than the TL fiasco on the line. I've never understood why they needed to convert a few select services over to TL.

You'd be better off and more reliable reserving London Bridge for East Grinstead/Uckfield services and purely Southern, and keeping them self-contained as a pair of lines and using the extra TL core paths for other services.

 

[mrbouffant]

I'd be more than happy for the East Grinstead to be taken out and given back to Southern. Yes it wasn't perfect but billions of times better than the TL fiasco on the line. I've never understood why they needed to convert a few select services over to TL.

You'd be better off and more reliable reserving London Bridge for East Grinstead/Uckfield services and purely Southern, and keeping them self-contained as a pair of lines and using the extra TL core paths for other services.

Completely agree - it has been an utter shambles all week! Why did anyone think that turning a 30 mile train journey in a 60 mile+ journey would lead to a better service (I'm thinking here about evening peak trains to EGR coming from Luton/Bedford instead of starting at LBG).
This morning really took the biscuit, the TL trains at 0545, 0615 and 0645 were all cancelled and I had to take a VIC service, changing at CLJ for WAT to then have the pleasure of the Waterloo & City line just to get into the office!
I've had 9 journeys under the new timetable this week and already made 6 compensation claims. So happy I have a week off next week....

 

[The Box Photter]

FYI apparently a SouthEastern train has been signalled into the n/bound Blackfriars platform (pl 2) so has completely cocked up the TL timetable.

07:37 Sole St to Blackfriars directed into platform 2 then had to reverse back out to Elephant and Castle & then reverse again to platform 4!

Major delays through the core!

Why couldn't the miscreant unit have been run through and stabled in Smithfield Sidings? That way they wouldn't have blocked the job whilst performing the shunt back into one of the bay platforms?

 

[Taunton]

However we already have political figures from further out now becoming involved, and I predict this noise will get louder and louder.

Grant Shapps, Welwyn MP, calls for GTR to be terminated.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-44235645

Mr Grayling told the House of Commons the number of delays and cancellations was "not good enough" and said his department was working hard to sort the problem

Other than issuing bo11ockings, I wonder what part any Dept Transport staff can contribute. It's an operational issue.

 

[RichJF]

Why couldn't the miscreant unit have been run through and stabled in Smithfield Sidings? That way they wouldn't have blocked the job whilst performing the shunt back into one of the bay platforms?

I'm not sure. I'm not in the railway business but I guess SE drivers are not trained to Smithfield Sidings anymore, or if it's a 12 car it'd be too long to fit in the tracks.

 

[Bromley boy]

Why couldn't the miscreant unit have been run through and stabled in Smithfield Sidings? That way they wouldn't have blocked the job whilst performing the shunt back into one of the bay platforms?

Networkers are no longer allowed into Smithfield sidings*, so the unit would have to have made a wrong direction move back out.

*something to do with clearance from the overhead wires, I believe.

 

[NorthKent1989]

I'd be more than happy for the East Grinstead to be taken out and given back to Southern. Yes it wasn't perfect but billions of times better than the TL fiasco on the line. I've never understood why they needed to convert a few select services over to TL.

You'd be better off and more reliable reserving London Bridge for East Grinstead/Uckfield services and purely Southern, and keeping them self-contained as a pair of lines and using the extra TL core paths for other services.

I feel the same regarding the Medway service, I think they may have to rethink certain routes and perhaps ditch a few, Thameslink clearly have overestimated themselves here, they taken on self contained routes like the Oxted and Medway routes and shoehorned them into some large version of the Northern line.

 

[radamfi]

Can other southern routes take increased frequency if East Grinstead, Medway etc. routes are ditched? The frequency north and south of London needs to be matched.

 

[mrbouffant]

Can other southern routes take increased frequency East Grinstead, Medway etc. routes are ditched? The frequency north and south of London needs to be matched.

Don't know, but I suppose if the peak LBG trains return to Southern, TLR could still run 1 or 2 services from EGR as well. If they ran semi-fast in the manner of the Uckfield trains then this would certainly be welcomed by the commuters I'm sure. If they failed to run then at least the slower LBG services would be behind them as a backup. Of course this means more services travelling through ECR than previously, so is there a throughput problem there?