Why do all Great Northern inner suburban servces go to Moorgate?

Why did they make all inner suburban services got to Moorgate even during the weekend?

Iit is such a pain travelling to Kings Cross and having to change at Finsbury Park because the outer suburban services don't provide good connection with the ones going to Moorgate.

Just stay on until Highbury and then easy cross platform interchange to the Victoria line every couple of minutes.

The key benefits of this change include (but may not be limited to):
It provides stations from Hertford North and Welwyn Garden City in as far as Highbury & Islington with a direct service to / from Old Street and Moorgate as they have on weekdays, saving the additional interchange at King's Cross.
It provides a weekend service to Essex Road, which was not served by any other rail route on Saturdays or Sundays and is a fairly densely populated urban area.
It provides a cross platform interchange for stations Hertford North and Welwyn Garden City in as far as Harringay to the Victoria line to the 'West End'
It allows single interchange at Highbury & Islington to the London Overground East and North London lines plus (as cle pointed out below - for which thanks!) .

The key downsides of this change include (but again may not be limited to):
Stations between Hertford North and Welham Green in as far as Harringay (other than Potters Bar) lose their direct service to King's Cross itself and now have to change at Finsbury Park or Highbury & Islington. This will particularly be a problem for those interchanging on to long distance or Eurostar services.
It reduces the frequency of National Rail services between Finsbury Park and King's Cross, although as the two Underground routes provide in excess of 40 trains per hour between them, this probably only concerns a modest number of passengers.

Some passengers using these services will be indifferent, such as those who already could use Finsbury Park to interchange to the Underground.

Presumably the benefits and downsides were evaluated and it was found that the benefits outweighed the costs sufficiently to cover the latter (staffing Essex Road for example). Some rail improvements only confer benefits, but many are a trade off between winners and losers and if King's Cross is your destination, rather than just a point to interchange to another service towards Central London, you will be on the losing side of the trade off...

Not to mention the Overground (both networks) at Highbury - a lot of connectivity!

I must admit, the change seems worse because of the current timetable (or lack of). This is giving some large gaps in the service which are frustrating.

But the Highbury and Islington change does open up a lot of connections. Once cross rail opens I am sure many will prefer Moorgate to kings cross.

Must admit if you have a lot of baggage and heading for an IC service I can see why you could think 4tph (once the timetable is fully implemented) between Welwyn and Hertford is excessive. Why not have 2 to each.

On the IC point, I head north to Stevenage to avoid Kings Cross, though of course the number of trains stopping is limited

MatthewRead said:

Why did they make all inner suburban services got to Moorgate even during the weekend?

Iit is such a pain travelling to Kings Cross and having to change at Finsbury Park because the outer suburban services don't provide good connection with the ones going to Moorgate.

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Back when it was a service every 30 mins, I'd tend to agree with you, because if you were heading to Welwyn or Hatfield you could easily end up sitting around if you'd just missed one - and Highbury isn't the most salubrious of stations to be stuck at for 30 mins.

With the better frequencies, that isn't so much of an issue.

A0wen said:

Back when it was a service every 30 mins, I'd tend to agree with you, because if you were heading to Welwyn or Hatfield you could easily end up sitting around if you'd just missed one - and Highbury isn't the most salubrious of stations to be stuck at for 30 mins.

With the better frequencies, that isn't so much of an issue.

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I would have agreed about Highbury 30 years ago. These days it is so busy that I have never felt uncomfortable there.

I think as well as providing more mainline track capacity at Kings Cross by removing paths as mentioned by notverydeep earlier, it also frees up the shorter platforms for use by open access operators, namely HullTrains and Grand Central, and also First’s planned Edinburgh service. The ECML franchisee is also expected to operate more trains anyway during their current franchise.

I guess what it shows is that Kings Cross is a surprisingly small terminus for the number and importance of destinations that it serves, and frequency of departures, at least by European standards. (Think of the size of terminals in Paris, and the relatively limited number of routes that some of them serve.)

MatthewRead said:

Why did they make all inner suburban services got to Moorgate even during the weekend?

Iit is such a pain travelling to Kings Cross and having to change at Finsbury Park because the outer suburban services don't provide good connection with the ones going to Moorgate.

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There is explicit evidence available online; the TSGN franchise consultation report and stakeholder’s brief reported that “stakeholders” asked for the service to run to Moorgate 7/7:

4.85 The inner section of the Great Northern Line serves a number of busy commuter stations in North London and Hertfordshire. Many respondents to the consultation were concerned about the impact of the Thameslink Programme and the new TSGN franchise on services to Harringay and Hornsey and on destinations on the Hertford Loop. There were also calls for increased frequency into Moorgate in the off-peak, and for services later into the evenings, and at weekends, to serve Moorgate rather than diverting to King's Cross.

4.86 The Department took careful account of the concerns raised during the consultation in putting together the train service requirements for the franchise, which offer significant benefits to customers using inner stations on the Great Northern line.

December 2015 onwards

4.87 From December 2015, trains running via Finsbury Park will no longer be diverted to King’s Cross at certain times but terminate at Moorgate, where the extended opening times will broadly match those at London Overground stations. This recognises the increased activity late at night and at weekends in the Old Street / Moorgate area, and allows customers to take advantage of the improved interchange with the London Overground services at Highbury & Islington.

https://assets.publishing.service.g...a/file/245205/consultation-responses-tsgn.pdf

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So according to that it was done to meet public demand.

It's also partly down to operational convenience. Moorgate to Finsbury Park gets quite full in the peak with people going to various destinations. It makes sense to take all the inner-suburban services and dump them to/from Moorgate with the rest of it running to King's Cross-St Pancras. Finsbury Park, Highbury & Islington and Bounds Green can be used as interchanges from King's Cross to Enfield/New Barnet etc.

swt_passenger said:

There is explicit evidence available online; the TSGN franchise consultation report and stakeholder’s brief reported that “stakeholders” asked for the service to run to Moorgate 7/7:


So according to that it was done to meet public demand.

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Really very curious about who exactly wants to go to moorgate on a weekend - the whole city is completely dead! Why anyone would be travelling to moorgate over king's cross on a weekend is beyond me

Searle said:

Really very curious about who exactly wants to go to moorgate on a weekend - the whole city is completely dead! Why anyone would be travelling to moorgate over king's cross on a weekend is beyond me

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Highbury and Islington is the big change over. But i prefer old street / Moorgate for the northern line to get to London Bridge. One day I will be able to change at Finsbury Park however to get to London Bridge. (No idea when). But then Moorgate will be good for cross rail.
Agree the city is dead most weekends. Not really until Highbury until the loading picks up.

Searle said:

Really very curious about who exactly wants to go to moorgate on a weekend - the whole city is completely dead! Why anyone would be travelling to moorgate over king's cross on a weekend is beyond me

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Dead at the weekend? When did the night time economy in the Old Street - Shoreditch area collapse?

Essex Road is quite busy now for the bars and restaurants, but possibly not as busy as it could be as I bet a lot of people don't really know it exists.

Old Street is busy all the time, as a gateway to Shoreditch. Moorgate may not be so busy but there are useful connections, like the tube (and Crossrail) and a very short walk to Liverpool Street. Highbury and Islington is busy as already stated for connections on a similar basis to Moorgate.

It's a very useful line and I think the new trains will transform the line and likely see growth in much the same way as when London Overground was formed.