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Thameslink Services / Timetable from 18 May 2019

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adamedwards

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My experience of St Albans to Hendon as a commute is things have settled down quite well. Occasional bad days.
On Great Northern the key issue is getting back the 30 mins fast trains to London from Hatfield and WGC as an hourly service has convinced many people the service is much worse than it is. But this also needs to get back to reliable delivery. Waiting to see.
 

700007

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I would probably say Great Northern is still really struggling for a lot of it but ThamesLink has calmed down by the looks of it mostly.

Great Northern frequently has several driver shortages which cancels an abundance of trains every other evening peak on the line into Moorgate. Whether these are actual drivers or signal sighters for the 717s I don't know but I recall this being an issue even before they were introduced during the evening peak so I imagine it may be both.

The main issues are the really poor timetables at weekends although luckily that's set to change next week where some improvements should occur. Using Thameslink and Great Northern at the weekend is more fuss than it should be because a lot of services have been scaled back to the very basics. This doesn't help as what has also happened is some services effectively have been combined into one (most notably the London King's Cross to Ely fast has been pretty much dropped in favour of the northern portion of the Brighton to Cambridge semi-fast but extended to Ely and sits at Stevenage and especially Cambridge for quite a lot of time. The spacing between the two London - Cambridge trains an hour is incredibly stupid as one has to wait up to 53 minutes at King's Cross before their train leaves. Luckily the Brighton to Cambridge service is to run at weekends starting next week and I believe the Ely fast should also be restored, if I am correct?

The Rainham service at weekends has also been shambolic to use, running only once an hour and not north of Kentish Town. The reliability is also poor and too many times for me I have seen the service suspended at the drop of a hat. It was really bad on weekdays too but I feel it has improved since the December timetable.
 
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Why are they only having one service through the core stopping at Finsbury Park?

Is there a usuable route map out there for the new timetable that explains the frequency of each service?
 
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Are they still relying on voluntary overtime by drivers to run the weekend service? Is there a long term plan/requirement to make it scheduled?
 

A0wen

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My experience of St Albans to Hendon as a commute is things have settled down quite well. Occasional bad days.
On Great Northern the key issue is getting back the 30 mins fast trains to London from Hatfield and WGC as an hourly service has convinced many people the service is much worse than it is. But this also needs to get back to reliable delivery. Waiting to see.

Looking at NR website, there is the 2tph "fast" i.e. Hatfield, Potters Bar, FP, KX service from both WGC and Hatfield and I think it's been back for some time? Those trains are timed for 32 mins - which I think is what they've been for very many years.
 

DaveN

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So on the MML the main change is the weekends going back to 4tph from Bedford. Pre-May 2018, we generally did get 4tph to London on Saturdays but on Sundays if there were engineering works between Three Bridges and Brighton or near Sevenoaks, we'd only get 2tph to London. So I have had a look at the initial services. The details are only available until June 23rd at present (when will we get back to 12 weeks in advance I wonder?).

Of the 5 Saturdays with the new timetable, there's the full service 2 weeks, one lot of 2tph to St Pancras only and 2 lots of buses between Bedford and Luton.
Of the 6 Sundays, there's one lot of Full Service, one Full service but only to Three Bridges, 2 lots of 2tph to St Pancras only and 2 lots of buses to Luton.

So for stations north of Luton, I make that an average of 2tph to St Pancras on both Saturdays and Sundays.

On the plus side, the full service but only to Three Bridges on Sunday June 2nd, is probably better than we would have got late 2017/early 2018.
 

Aictos

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I just wish they hurry up and bring back the terminators at Luton on Saturdays and have 2tph between London and Luton as well 2tph between London and Bedford.
 

IrishDave

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As a commuter from Brighton to London Bridge, I'm greatly looking forward to there being two trains per hour between Brighton and Cambridge instead of one. Because of the slightly different pattern in the morning peak, there's currently a 41-minute gap in departures from Brighton to London Bridge (between 07:18 and 07:59); the new 07:37 to Cambridge slots perfectly into the gap, and I plan to be on it on the first day. Also, having a 17:45 from London Bridge to Brighton will definitely ease the loadings on the 17:35.

However, I do find it disingenuous that Thameslink are promoting this as an increase from 18tph to 20tph; it's not. It only goes up to 19tph, because the extra Littlehampton-Bedford trains haven't been added in. Because of the short nature of the high peak, this only amounts to one missing train in the morning (9N86, the 06:22 Littlehampton to Bedford) and one in the evening (9N95, the 16:14 Bedford to Littlehampton, 17:25 from London Bridge). I find it odd that these two trains haven't been added in; are there resource issues behind adding them?
 

BluePenguin

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I am feeling hopeful that many lessons have been learnt from the mistakes of last year and confident that services will improve in punctuality. The new timetable does not look too shabby, for my journeys anyway. I see the promised Maidstone/Ashford services won't be introduced but Thameslink is good on the whole.

However, on several section of the route, delays seem to happen out of nowhere. One minute you are whizzing along nicely and the next thing you are crawling at a snails pace or sat at a station with no announcements as to why. The Rainham service has way too much slack and it seems the others have too little. The Cambridge service needs to be more frequent. The stopping patterns need to be the same from both sides of London as it is impossible to know if the train will stop at the station you want without checking.

Generally I think Thameslink will fine come the 20th and the focus will be on the failures of the new overrly optimistic LNWR timetables instead. I will be curious to see the newspaper headlines on the 20th....
 

DaveN

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The new Bedford services worked for me today. The new services are only 8 carriages but that was plenty for the 11:35 from Bedford with only 3 carriages "dark green" after St Albans
 

JonathanH

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The new Bedford services worked for me today. The new services are only 8 carriages but that was plenty for the 11:35 from Bedford with only 3 carriages "dark green" after St Albans

They won't all be 8 carriages - it depends on how many units they take from Bedford Carriage Sidings for the day - the Bedford to Gatwick service I took from Redhill this afternoon was a 12 carriage unit.
 

DaveN

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They won't all be 8 carriages - it depends on how many units they take from Bedford Carriage Sidings for the day - the Bedford to Gatwick service I took from Redhill this afternoon was a 12 carriage unit.
That's good. All the ones from Bedford this morning were shown as 8. (Actually I was on the 10:35 from Bedford.
 

ChiefPlanner

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Awkward shunts needed to get some 12 car sets out of the "new" sidings at Bedford , BUT, needed if you only are running 2 tph. Even on a Sunday.

The franchise agreement clearly says that off peak travellers are expected to have "sufficient capacity" ( i.e a seat) - a fact that FCC with their very tight unit mileage budgets on both MML and GN were "very" aware , and which caused some interesting dialogue at times.
 

MML

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Could someone advise which Bedford services will be 8-car operated Monday to Friday from the new timetable ?
A list was provided on the old timetable thread but I can't find it now.

And could you also advise the name of the website which displays the number of carriages for each train ? It's the system used on the station displays as far as I remember.
 

londonmidland

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Could someone advise which Bedford services will be 8-car operated Monday to Friday from the new timetable ?
A list was provided on the old timetable thread but I can't find it now.

And could you also advise the name of the website which displays the number of carriages for each train ? It's the system used on the station displays as far as I remember.

Hello, I think http://iris2.rail.co.uk/tiger/ this is the link you are looking for.
 

bramling

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Awkward shunts needed to get some 12 car sets out of the "new" sidings at Bedford , BUT, needed if you only are running 2 tph. Even on a Sunday.

The franchise agreement clearly says that off peak travellers are expected to have "sufficient capacity" ( i.e a seat) - a fact that FCC with their very tight unit mileage budgets on both MML and GN were "very" aware , and which caused some interesting dialogue at times.

WAGN were the worst, especially in Prism days. The weekend/off-peak service on GN was almost solid 4-car, even in the 1999s this could lead to gross overcrowding at some times.

On a related note, GN users will need to watch out for an 8-car diagram which appears with this timetable on the weekday Cambridge/Brighton service. Unfortunately it hits the high peak in both the morning and evening on the GN side. All that vital capacity and all that, yet look at all those 8-car trains running around!
 

MML

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Well it all seems to be going swimmingly for my first day of the new timetable.
My 12-car train cancelled due to driver shortage. So 20 coaches worth of passengers are sardined on an 8-car unit.
Brilliant !
I've said this before but they need an extra half dozen 12-car units and stabling to make the most of constrained capacity.
 

Aictos

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Well it all seems to be going swimmingly for my first day of the new timetable.
My 12-car train cancelled due to driver shortage. So 20 coaches worth of passengers are sardined on an 8-car unit.
Brilliant !
I've said this before but they need an extra half dozen 12-car units and stabling to make the most of constrained capacity.

I quite agree, say 15 more Class 700/1 to bolster services currently using Class 700/0s and say 10 more Class 700/0s to provide services.
 

Aictos

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I know there’s a requirement to run some 8 cars to Bedford but this should be reduced with more 12 cars being used.
 

MikeWM

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Their service recovery today from a number of issues (first at Littleport, then Ely, then a trespass near Royston) seems to be a lot better than they've managed over the past year. Hopefully that can continue.

They seem to have had an awful lot of breakdowns in the last couple of weeks though - seemingly at least one a day. Looks like one today too (0751 off KGX, and most of the return from Cambridge North).

Personally it wasn't a great start - 16 late on my commute, worst for a couple of months. But that was due to the Ely issue, which wasn't their fault, so I won't complain too much based on one day!
 

Ianno87

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WAGN were the worst, especially in Prism days. The weekend/off-peak service on GN was almost solid 4-car, even in the 1999s this could lead to gross overcrowding at some times.

On a related note, GN users will need to watch out for an 8-car diagram which appears with this timetable on the weekday Cambridge/Brighton service. Unfortunately it hits the high peak in both the morning and evening on the GN side. All that vital capacity and all that, yet look at all those 8-car trains running around!

Seemed to be on the circuit that involves the 1824 Cambridge-Brighton (so the 1702ish northwards from St Pancras).

Mentally noted.

By my mental maths puts it also on the 0724 off Cambridge (0830ish St P) in the morning.

Also duly noted.
 

387star

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Only a few senior Brighton drivers sign littlehampton but I'd guess all are now trained
Maybe ATO is required before the service is further enhanced
 

Mikey C

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Used a couple of Thameslink services last week, and certainly on the routes I was taking (Cricklewood to St Albans and STP to Charlton) to service seems much better, with a proper frequency of trains and no cancellations
 
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