Thameslink Services/Timetable from May 20th 2018

[DelW]

Happy to be of help. Its odd to think of us as highly skilled and highly trained and then the simplest of things trip us up. 'Driver error' is a genuine reason why there may be delays, cancellations and whatever else.

My car has an electric parking brake. I keep getting out of it without setting it Ive had it for over a year ! The new model now sets the parking brake automatically when you press off.

700s are pretty awesome to drive and I would prefer it over anything else but they can be a bloody nightmare to deal with.

ComUtorR, thank you for really interesting posts, the sort of insight that's hard to find anywhere else. I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd been hankering back to the days of simple electro-mechanical controls!

 

[jon0844]

PPM hit a record level yesterday (90.9%, the highest since April). Higher today, but a broken down train at Moorgate has caused a few issues, so the day may end lower than the current 92%.

 

[OwenB]

PPM hit a record level yesterday (90.9%, the highest since April). Higher today, but a broken down train at Moorgate has caused a few issues, so the day may end lower than the current 92%.

That should really be the norm, considering the number of services removed from the timetable. I'm getting irritated by the lack of timescales for when services will start to be introduced (1tph HAT-SVG on a Saturday - really? With a PPM of around 60%). Leisure travel at the weekend is a no no at the moment. This is all still a pale imitation of the service we had pre-May 20th.

 

[Failed Unit]

PPM hit a record level yesterday (90.9%, the highest since April). Higher today, but a broken down train at Moorgate has caused a few issues, so the day may end lower than the current 92%.

Record since May I assume?

Sadly this figure is GTR wide. Great northern still struggling despite less timetables trains then before May it is still much worse than the old timetable with too much skip stopping happening.

 

[paul332]

Whatever the apparent improvement, the service on the BedPan stoppers remains contemptible. RTT showing the 17.24 and 17:39 from BFR cancelled, which means no bloody northbound trains for a whole hour (16:49 - 17:49) to Kentish Town, West Hampstead, Cricklewood, Hendon, Mill Hill, Elstree, Radlett. Against what used to be a 15-minute service! This just flounders between abysmal, despicable, execrable .....

 

[mrmatt]

Whatever the apparent improvement, the service on the BedPan stoppers remains contemptible. RTT showing the 17.24 and 17:39 from BFR cancelled, which means no bloody northbound trains for a whole hour (16:49 - 17:49) to Kentish Town, West Hampstead, Cricklewood, Hendon, Mill Hill, Elstree, Radlett. Against what used to be a 15-minute service! This just flounders between abysmal, despicable, execrable .....

The 1731 from Farringdon, which is usually a fast service, was swapped over to run all stops to St Albans then picked up it's normal pattern. But I agree it's still poor as stations further down the loop won't have had anything.

 

[westcoaster]

Whatever the apparent improvement, the service on the BedPan stoppers remains contemptible. RTT showing the 17.24 and 17:39 from BFR cancelled, which means no bloody northbound trains for a whole hour (16:49 - 17:49) to Kentish Town, West Hampstead, Cricklewood, Hendon, Mill Hill, Elstree, Radlett. Against what used to be a 15-minute service! This just flounders between abysmal, despicable, execrable .....

Yesterday's issues were caused by an out of guage 3rd rail near tooting ripping of multiple shoes.

 

[sprunt]

Joy, 17.20 Moorgate->Stevenage cancelled for no reason, or not one that's being shared with the users of the national rail enquiries website anyway. That'll make the 17.25 service unpleasant, best get off there now and get my elbows ready for when it arrives...

 

[jon0844]

Joy, 17.20 Moorgate->Stevenage cancelled for no reason, or not one that's being shared with the users of the national rail enquiries website anyway. That'll make the 17.25 service unpleasant, best get off there now and get my elbows ready for when it arrives...

Train fault. Apparently on another train that has caused various issues to and from Moorgate.

 

[bramling]

Yesterday's issues were caused by an out of guage 3rd rail near tooting ripping of multiple shoes.

Great - another example of 3rd-rail issues affecting north of the river.

On a different note, has anyone else noticed the lighting on the 365s now seems to flicker? This seems to be a recent thing - certainly since the conversion to LED lighting. It's enough to be a slight irritant.

 

[jon0844]

365s don't come to my neck of the woods except on weekends now. Sounds like a poor retro fit lighting setup if they're flickering.

 

[OwenB]

Train fault. Apparently on another train that has caused various issues to and from Moorgate.

Yep, looks like a couple tonight. I'm on the 17.48 OLD-HAT currently about 10 minutes late, despite setting off more or less on time

 

[Downthelane]

Oh dear, not a good morning for WGC and HAT. Wouldn't want to be sitting on a small majority in this constituency....

 

[OwenB]

Oh dear, not a good morning for WGC and HAT. Wouldn't want to be sitting on a small majority in this constituency....

Shame Grant's majority isn't that small.

 

[SPADTrap]

Shame Grant's majority isn't that small.

Which is one of life's mysteries. Brainwashed.

 

[OwenB]

Which is one of life's mysteries. Brainwashed.

Haha, it's those rich buggers in places like Brookmans Park who keep voting for him!

 

[Failed Unit]

I suspect nothing will change now parliament is out for summer. But I would love to know what GTR are getting judge on.

I have seen a general improvement on Monday - Friday but we must remember that on great northern this is based on less trains that pre-May so nothing to celebrate.

Weekend services are still unusable with constant cancellations on an already limited service. Will DfT care as weekends don’t make bad press.

GTR still constantly release misleading press releases. Yes the entire franchise isn’t looking bad. Great Northern is still performing poorly.

Handling of disruption is still poor. Both in terms of communication and recovery. They skip stop leaving big gaps but the train doing so are not routed onto the fast lines so don’t really recover time.

 

[sprunt]

Yep, looks like a couple tonight. I'm on the 17.48 OLD-HAT currently about 10 minutes late, despite setting off more or less on time

Yeah - I got on the 17.25 at Moorgate, which was in the station for a while at Highbury before a failed train at Drayton Park was announced - I'm lucky in that I can switch over at Highbury to the underground and go to Turnpike Lane instead of Hornsey - feel sorry for the people going a long way though, the Northern City line in the heat at the moment is horrible. It's not so bad once the trains start moving, but when they're sitting in stations for any length of time it's unbearable.

 

[700007]

The Saturday service is fairly poor on the GN side of things. I don't know how you can attempt to merge an Ely fast and a Cambridge semi fast. Services to and from Cambridge are already rammed and people struggle to board the fast or semi fast.

 

[Downthelane]

Haha, it's those rich buggers in places like Brookmans Park who keep voting for him!

Actually its not and that is that baffling part.

 

[sprunt]

Has anybody checked whether Michael Green and Sebastian Fox are registered to vote in Shapps's constituency?

 

[OwenB]

At least one train (mine 18.06 KGX-WGC) already cancelled due to a shortage of drivers this evening...

 

[bramling]

365s don't come to my neck of the woods except on weekends now. Sounds like a poor retro fit lighting setup if they're flickering.

There’s a 365 out on the stopping services today, and it’s an odd-number one too!

I suspect you’re right about it being a poor retrofit. It seems to happen when the train is under power. They should just go back to the lighting initially fitted on the first few refreshed units, which was just right - not too harsh but warm and pleasant feeling, although not LED. It does seem to be a recent thing though, so not sure if they’ve changed what’s in the fitting (to something cheaper?!).

Apart from that the 365s seem in a good state at the moment - very clean and tidy inside, more than likely a by-product of their less intensive use. More depot time and less passengers, plus no doubt some benefit from not being used on the late-night and weekend scum expresses.

(Thinking about it, there’s little reason the 365s couldn’t be re-fitted with carpet now!).

 

[MikeWM]

I should note that the performance of this train <the 0948 from Ely to Cambridge> has actually drastically improved - last week it was on-time to within a minute every day.

It wasn't going to last though, was it? This week : on time, 2 late, 4 late, cancelled, cancelled. Rather less good

 

[jon0844]

There’s a 365 out on the stopping services today, and it’s an odd-number one too!

I suspect you’re right about it being a poor retrofit. It seems to happen when the train is under power. They should just go back to the lighting initially fitted on the first few refreshed units, which was just right - not too harsh but warm and pleasant feeling, although not LED. It does seem to be a recent thing though, so not sure if they’ve changed what’s in the fitting (to something cheaper?!).

Apart from that the 365s seem in a good state at the moment - very clean and tidy inside, more than likely a by-product of their less intensive use. More depot time and less passengers, plus no doubt some benefit from not being used on the late-night and weekend scum expresses.

(Thinking about it, there’s little reason the 365s couldn’t be re-fitted with carpet now!).

Yes, saw the 365 today. Shame it was only a 4 car, but better than a cancellation.

 

[greyman42]

Which is one of life's mysteries. Brainwashed.

The electorate may vote for Shapps on matters other than the performance of GTR.

 

[OwenB]

The electorate may vote for Shapps on matters other than the performance of GTR.

Not sure that was a train-related comment.

 

[sefton]

I have seen a general improvement on Monday - Friday but we must remember that on great northern this is based on less trains that pre-May so nothing to celebrate.

...

Handling of disruption is still poor. Both in terms of communication and recovery. They skip stop leaving big gaps but the train doing so are not routed onto the fast lines so don’t really recover time.

Pretty much what happened this afternoon.

13:55 Horsham to Peterborough was fine until it got to Finsbury Park where the changeover driver was nowhere to be found and as a result 30 minutes later it sets off skipping everything north of Stevenage. Great it makes up 10 minutes.

Meanwhile the passengers thrown off at Finsbury Park have to change onto the delayed 15:52 which was stuck in the tunnels in the traffic jam caused by the missing driver. So that train now loses time all the way and by Hitchin everyone is an hour late - all to save 10 minutes on the turnaround.

The missing driver also knocks on to the 14.09 Brighton to Cambridge so it ends up 30 minutes late (although no skipping stations for them), and the 15:20 Kings Cross to Cambridge which ends up 20 minutes late by Hitchin, so then skips everything else.

And what was hilarious about this shambles of not being able to get a driver to where they need to be, was the change over driver for the delayed 15:52 was stood on the platform at Finsbury Park commenting to the platform staff they were surprised they had not been asked to take the train with the missing driver instead.

I am not sure which is worse, the lack of organisation of getting a member of staff to a location on time (and not realising you have a replacement there already) or the people playing toy train sets by skip stopping.

And the absolute icing on the cake was the delay south of Stevenage as according to the tannoy announcement, a driver who had left their train at the platform had gone missing. A wit on Twitter asked whether they would make the same announcement you would get at a supermarket - "Would the driver who has parked their train at platform x and is blocking the entrance please move it now".

 

[bramling]

Yes, saw the 365 today. Shame it was only a 4 car, but better than a cancellation.

I did a double-take seeing it at Knebworth - very retro!

Being stuck with 4 cars shows it possibly wasn’t the best decision to do a cheap job extending the village platforms - although 4 cars only shouldn’t be a major problem during the off-peak at least as this is largely what the old service used to be.

The weekend service is the biggest mess at the moment.

 

[Aictos]

I did a double-take seeing it at Knebworth - very retro!

Being stuck with 4 cars shows it possibly wasn’t the best decision to do a cheap job extending the village platforms - although 4 cars only shouldn’t be a major problem during the off-peak at least as this is largely what the old service used to be.

The weekend service is the biggest mess at the moment.

There is a solution to the villages though and not one that will be popular but will mean a better service ....

Just run a shuttle between Royston and Cambridge North as a 4 car every 30 mins connecting with services at Royston and Cambridge for London that way you don't need to extend the platforms and you don't need to subject the villages with 8 or 12 car trains indeed it be a good place for the Class 313s to go...

Their paths south of Royston use them for other services, jobs a good un

As to Moorgate in the peaks there should be a system of stepping up drivers like London Underground uses at Elephant and Castle, City and Waterloo etc

As to delays regarding drivers not being where they're meant to be, someone somewhere isn't doing their job properly as this is something I would have would have thought should have been picked up earlier then they have been, for a train to arrive at a station for a booked crew change and no relief is there is unthinkable.