The thing I always found bizarre about Thameslink itself is that when the project for expansion was first launched way back in 1991, the terminals in the north were pretty much set in stone, Kings Lynn was dropped a while ago, but the routes in the South always seemed uncertain and were changed around constantly up until 2016!
Only Brighton and Sevenoaks seemed to be set in stone, but it was constant swapping and changing, unlike Crossrail, the decided route was Shenfield to Maidenhead/Reading with branches to Heathrow and Abbey Wood (possibly Gravesend) since the 1990s/early 2000s at least, where as the “finalised routes” have swapped and changed so much over the years I’ve lost count, first Dartford via Bexleyheath and Sidcup was considered, then they were dropped in favour of going via Greenwich and Woolwich instead, then all the Dartford routes were dropped altogether citing conflicting moves only for them to reintroduce the Dartford via Greenwich option to Rainham Kent, years later ignoring the conflict moves issue all in the name of; as one poster put it “a panic to send the trains somewhere or anywhere” for example
The issue with the timetable is indeed because of journey times increasing in some extreme cases, when trains do run that is, sure you can get to far flung places like Cambridge or St. Albans without changing for the tube to another London terminal to catch another train, but what’s the point if your going to be calling at every stop or omitting some useful stops for that matter.
As I have said South Eastern routes should be routed via E&C leaving the South Central routes to London Bridge, even if it does mean less tph because at this stage I’m not confident Thameslink can deliver 24tph through the core in the peak.
