While there have been important flows into Reading and Guildford from the Blackwater Valley on the stopping services in the peaks, at almost all times of the daye, there is a clear preference for the faster trains on the route. I commuted from Reading to Reigate for twelve years, admittedly stopping in 2012. It was clear that east of Guildford, the Gatwick trains loaded substantially better than the ones which started at Redhill.
The numbers of people at Chilworth, Gomshall and Betchworth are not surpressed by the timetable. In the 3tph timetable, everything stopped at Guildford, Dorking Deepdene, Reigate and Redhill. Is the 'sneaking thought locally' around the idea that more people would use a service with more evenly spaced timing at the main stations?
Living in Reigate, if I want to travel to Reading or further west, I would prefer to do so on a train that takes 60 minutes rather than one which takes 80.
I don't think that recognises the kind of passengers who use this route off-peak. It isn't just Gatwick - my impression is that there is a fairly sizeable flow of long-distance leisure passengers from GWR destinations to places beyond Gatwick. Changing at Redhill isn't great (and is terrible when there are a lot of passengers with suitcases who need to use two lifts).
Passengers from smaller stations only have a train every 2 hours, that is not a convenient service and will inevitably supress potential passengers as cars would be easier than trying to time their trip around the rail service - I do not know if that is a lot or a few being supressed.
I too travel from Reigate to Reading a lot and concur with your thoughts. My point wasn't to scrap all fast services but that a 2ph local service with a third fast might be a more productive option. The great need is always the Reading to Gatwick flow but what about local flows, and does it need to be Gatwick that the fast goes too, perhaps it should go to Tonbridge/Maidstone and Ebbsfleet instead or even be extended from Gatwick to Brighton. So many options become possible if you are not focussed an 2tph for Reading to Gatwick passengers who have a fast alternative
Really? That is still 20 minutes longer and the fares via London are much more expensive.
As I corrected in my later post - it is about the same from Gatwick to Reading (85 minutes on both routes) and perhaps easier for longer distance travellers to go via London to Gatwick. I also said that fares were the main driver to North Downs and not the services which is not good for a business case. Even at 2tph it is beaten by number of services via Paddington which off-peak is effectively 4tph.
The (off-peak) journey time from Reading to Reigate is pretty much 60 minutes by car and 60 minutes by train. While the M25 has issues on the Surrey stretch clockwise in the morning and the M3 is busy towards its junction with the M25, I don't see what can really be done to make the route more competitive other than on the line of route. Putting more stops in won't help.
Even if we took the example of Dorking to Reigate which is a materially quicker journey on the train than on the A25, people appear not to be attracted to using the train over this kind of distance.
60 minutes from Reigate to Reading by car in the peak is not possible when the journey you are suggesting is likely to happen - I have been doing it for several years as office not close enough to a station to make rail useful and it takes 1 hr 20 minimum in morning and evening peaks.
That is teh main issue with Public transport as it assumes people live next to station and office which is rarely the case, so there is often 10 or 20 minutes at either end which makes public transport less useful. Now if we could find ways of alleviating that we would be onto a winner. I think the only answer is regular local buses to station removing any waiting time - hard and expensive to do.
The cheaper fares and simpler journey benefits of the North Downs Line already exist. Make the services more frequent / faster and that's the main downside of using the route gone.
It is still 4tph via Paddington, if you made North Downs 4tph to Gatwick there would be no room for any local service.
Reading to Gatwick (as a specific trip rather than service) is not best use for North Downs route in my opinion and that is the main point I am trying to make. Faster Guildford to Maidstone on North Downs as an example might be a lot better at removing cars from the roads and generating passenger traffic for rail.