theageofthetra
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Will anyone at NR be fired though?
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Thameslink Services/Timetable from May 20th 2018
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How about Chris Grayling?
Sunset route
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They won’t sack him, his job whatever your politics is, is to take on and beat the unions. Once that job is done then the government will look at ways to reshape the railways in whatever vision is the current flavour of the month. Until then the passengers, staff and the tax payers are all collateral damage.
Exact details still being worked on with GTR and Network Rail but from tomorrow (Wednesday) Northbound trains from StP for Peterborough and Cambridge “should” be shown on Kings Cross departure boards. They will be removed 15 minutes before the booked departure. We shall see how it works or if it works
southern442
Established Member
I would suggest having 'Thameslink departures from St. Pancras' as a seperate, smaller set of departure boards where possible to include them, to avoid confusion. Also, big signs saying 'Stopping services to Peterborough and Cambridge depart from St. Pancras Low Level' or something like that.
In my opinion I think it would've been a lot better to have the Thameslink plats being part of the tube station and being called both names, just to make it a bit more accessible from both main stations.
Why does it terminate at Albans? It's in the original timetable presumably
Failed Unit
Established Member
Interesting question. May be just a stock positioning move as the return service goes to Sutton.
KatieLouLou
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In the original timetable it is booked to start from north of the river and go round the loop; instead, temporarily it is starting from Three Bridges, using a unit off the depot, and picks up the ex Sutton path at Blackfriars.
bramling
Veteran Member
It's all part of the ShamblesLink/ lottery.
As well as taking a punt on when a train will turn up, how long the journey will take, and whether your destination will be skipped due to late running or missed if the train is turned short, as if that's not enough there's also the lottery as to whether one should go to King's Cross or St Pancras, and having to play pingpong between the two during disruption.
In the old days it was all rather simple - go to King's Cross, board chosen service, get a (comfortable) seat, depart on time, most times reach destination more-or-less on time. Progress?
bramling
Veteran Member
Why do you hate people who travel from Arlesey to Ifield?
Perhaps because there aren't many of them!
On a serious point, I don't have a problem with *some* through services. The problem we have is that the concept has been taken to an extreme as someone's poor idea of providing extra capacity, which has produced a service which can't be depended upon.
Ironically both Arlesey and Ifield are stations which suffer particularly badly from skip stopping.
At least you can walk the mile-and-a-bit to Crawley station if needs be. Not such a fan of the six miles and 60mph country lanes with no pavement from Arlesey to Hitchin!
Have there been times when walking the 6 miles was quicker than waiting for a train and no bus was runnng?
bramling
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I think the answer to that is almost certainly yes - although don't forget Hitchin has had some pretty big gaps at times too.
OwenB
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I noticed that this has now happened. The St Pancras services are clearly marked.
As a side note, 'the next train to...' screen on the right of the big board now works and that also includes St Pancras services.
southern442
Established Member
I, for one, feel a bit silly for only realising after the shambolic introduction of the timetable what the now-seemingly-obvious disadvantages of having barrels of through services are.
Failed Unit
Established Member
Noticed the St Pancras departures at Kings Cross this morning. Very useful.
Quick question to Stevenage / Hitchin users. I was on the 0652 WGC - Kings Cross this morning and it surprised me how overcrowded it was. We were passed by the service that should have left Stevenage at 0649. (Ex Peterborough) 12 cars lots of seats. Do passengers generally get the first train that arrives rather than wait for a faster one (that may not show up). Hopefully when the full timetable is in place and the 0640 Stevenage service runs less will use the “stopper”.
Quick question to Stevenage / Hitchin users. I was on the 0652 WGC - Kings Cross this morning and it surprised me how overcrowded it was. We were passed by the service that should have left Stevenage at 0649. (Ex Peterborough) 12 cars lots of seats. Do passengers generally get the first train that arrives rather than wait for a faster one (that may not show up). Hopefully when the full timetable is in place and the 0640 Stevenage service runs less will use the “stopper”.
Same again today.
bramling
Veteran Member
It always *used* to be the case that most Hitchin passengers would wait for the faster services. However there would always be a small proportion of passengers who would board the stopping services, but only perhaps a handful per carriage. Noticeably more boarded at Stevenage though.
I can’t say if things have changed at peak times, however it’s certainly the case that more are taking the stopping services off-peak. It could simply be a function of the layout of the new timetable - before at Hitchin it was something like fast at 00 and 30 and slow at 04 and 34. Whilst people would take the fasts, on the occasions where the fast was a few minutes late and the slow arrived first it was noticeable how most people would take the slow, even if the fast was predicted to arrive right behind it. Nowadays the timetable has the slow services a few minutes before the faster ones, so perhaps this simply encourages more people to take the first train that comes? Especially being advertised to familiar Kings Cross and what with all the disruption?
OwenB
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Post the May shenanigans, I think it's definitely a case of being grateful a train has turned up and jump on.
The train maybe late leaving London Bridge and delayed in advance if it but it is getting into St Albans City on time or at least today it did.
That means it's reutnr journey should be on time and that surely is what they want most of all.
The vast majority of people using that train will be getting off between London Bridge and Farringdon, so the majority of people using that train are delayed. There is a lot of padding north of London Bridge, meaning that it recovered the entire 9 minutes delay by the end. There is a 0650 from Three Bridges as well, meaning that compared to last week you can't get into London Bridge significantly earlier. The delay to the 0641 means that the 0650 has arrived late into London Bridge all week. There are now three trains from East Croydon running through the core together. The only advantage of this new timetable is slight reduction in overcrowding and more people able to get a seat in declassified first class.
samuelmorris
Established Member
Is it possible it's as simple as, 'this train is actually here so I had better board it in case the later but faster one doesn't show up'?bramling said:
ert47
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From what I can see, today the issue is something to do with congestion on the fast lines in the Three Bridges/Gatwick area.(I've got waaaay too many tabs open on my browser trying to work this out)
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bramling
Veteran Member
You’re probably right. This didn’t used to be the case, but it seems to be so now.
Meanwhile, I see the Hitchin & Harpenden MP has described Thameslink Programme as “little boys with train sets”. About right.
The new timetable from December shows the 0641 Three Bridges to St Albans to become part of a Brighton to Cambridge service, but the Horsham to Bedford train is still the same time as before and still has excessive time to get from East Croydon to London Bridge. So how will the Brighton to Cambridge train avoid being stuck outside London Bridge?
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G73997/2018/12/17/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G73980/2018/12/17/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G73997/2018/12/17/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G73980/2018/12/17/advanced
If the diagrams are still being looked at for approval, surely the timetables are subject to change between now and December as there may be some services that cannot be run. It does appear there are currently a number of 'illegal' moves that will see these diagrams recalculated, potentially multiple times, until correct.
On the GN side, many drivers will be moving depots. There is now some training going on to fill gaps with 387 signing. There seem to be plenty of drivers trained for 700s but without the knowledge, and it seems 717 training will be pushed back as a result.
I think that with the timetable so important, the introduction of the 717s will have to fit around everything else.
On the GN side, many drivers will be moving depots. There is now some training going on to fill gaps with 387 signing. There seem to be plenty of drivers trained for 700s but without the knowledge, and it seems 717 training will be pushed back as a result.
I think that with the timetable so important, the introduction of the 717s will have to fit around everything else.
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