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The only Thameslink drivers who sign the Sutton Loop are based at Cricklewood, St Albans, Luton and Bedford - all north of the river.
As I understand it there is also a restriction that no driver may be diagrammed to work more than two Sutton Loop trains per shift (as it would be too...
RMT members at CrossCountry are on strike this Saturday (13th April) in a dispute specific to XC:
https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/crosscountry-workers-to-take-strike-action/
As a result the last XC from Birmingham to Coleshill leaves at 18:22 - timetable here...
The 17:33 London Bridge to Littlehampton was a Thameslink train until May 2023, but it was transferred to Southern at that point. Therefore "Thameslink only" tickets are no longer valid on that train.
The solution suggested by Albert Beale is the best one - a Brighton to "London Thameslink"...
To add to what louis97 said, as a general rule, when XC divert they generally try and fall into the next available standard hourly path, because identifying new paths on most of their network is rather tricky (e.g., good luck finding a different path through Leeds that still works at Newcastle)...
It's not the first - last ASLEF strike (in December) GTR ran a half-hourly shuttle between Victoria and Gatwick. Can't remember whether it was GX or SN branded though. It might have called at Clapham Junction and East Croydon but I can't quite remember.
I suspect that a Victoria-Gatwick shuttle...
I have a theory: I don't think it's had a good recovery, I think the usage of Preston Park - and a few other similar stations - has been under-reported for some years prior to the pandemic, and that this year's (and last year's) figures much more closely reflect reality.
The key point is: a...
My understanding is that HS1, unlike Network Rail, charges different track access charges for passenger trains vs empty stock moves. So my guess is the cost of running it in service wouldn't be justified by the additional revenue. That would also explain why the one that does run in service...
Only in peak hours - off-peak Brighton-Cambridge trains retain their faster calling pattern. This is broadly just a reversion to the situation pre-Dec 22 - I was quite surprised when they took those stops out in Dec 22, to be honest, and as one who likes to use Brighton in the morning peak but...
The Industrial Action page has a bit more detail:
https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/industrial-action
This map shows the extent of services on 5th August...
Difference is, before the pandemic, most blocks like this only meant dropping back half an hour and having Edinburgh-Reading and Newcastle-Bristol services. Now it means dropping back an hour because the Reading-Newcastle paths just aren't there.
The LNE block for Week 47 (18/19 Feb) at EAS v1 was just Wood Green-Langley (i.e. Alexandra Palace-Stevenage exclusive), so the Hertford Loop would have been available for diversions. It was extended north to Hitchin between v3 and v4, and evidently no-one at LNE thought to check with NW&C that...
The trouble is, those 700/0 diagrams on Brighton-Bedford are a feature, not a bug. The 700/0s have to get back to Three Bridges once in a while for heavy maintenance, but none of the regular routes served by 700/0s go anywhere near Three Bridges - so a handful of 700/0 diagrams serving Three...
It's planned work, the possession has been in the Engineering Access Statement for 2023 since version 1, which would have come out around November 2021 I think, certainly over a year ago.
It's not guards, it's Network Rail RMT staff only who will undertake the strike on 24-27 Dec - so signallers and engineering staff out on the ground. And yes, it will have little impact on passenger trains, but that's not the point, I don't think.
This completely kills basically all Christmas...
Because 80x can't use EPS speeds, because they can't tilt. Voyagers may be slower to accelerate but they can do 125mph; 80x are currently limited largely to 110mph on the WCML.