Well W230, this is one of the other things that gets to me (climbing on hobby horse). If you look at a day's activity through Catford, outside of the peaks there are odd empty stock movements to Bellingham sidings; and just a once hourly Vic-Gillingham service that runs fast to Bromley South. There are a LOT of freight paths, many of which are Q trains, ie not always needed. Thameslink will run a Maidstone semi fast (whatever that means) in selected off peak hours (whatever THAT means) . So there are paths for a doubling of the service - even if it's to Victoria that would be something, maybe even preferable - Vic SE side is poorly utilised off peak. I feel that it's a matter of the SE London users of this line just not having any clout in political or TOC circles. When you look at the hits the area has taken - lost the original Fleet line, South London Line, Vic-Bellingham/Bromley new service, and now an improved Thameslink frequency gone something smells of fish. Personally as a quick fix I'd turn the Gillingham train into a stopper - back in the mid 80s the loop was alternatively Blackfriars-Sevenoaks/Gillingham in fact. There can't be many travellers who opt for this slow train to get to the Medway from Vic over the Ramsgate/Dover fasts; Longfield and Meopham are already served by them also; and at least Farningham Road and Sole Street have the chance to change at Bromley South for a faster service.
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It was my understanding that the loop was going to get 2 Thameslink Sevenoaks trains an hour and 2 Blackfriars terminators to Bromley South an hour in the original plan before the Southern/Thameslink/GN merge became the franchise spec. I know the Vic-Bromley South service loss was a bit of TFL skulduggery but I'm looking at an overall picture. Maybe this is part of the problem - there are too many cooks and none of them are really interested. I really hope you are right about SE having to provide the extra trains as they seem to be very much a 'do the minimum' TOC (try their wonderful packed 2tph Orpington-Victoria on a hot summer Sunday).