It would be nice and useful if - Betchworth / Dorking West / Gomshall / Chilworth - got an hourly service with the new timetable.
Personally i would of thought a better idea would be to have one stopping train an hour calling at:
Redhill
Reigate
Betchworth
Dorking Deepdene
Dorking West
Gomshall
Chilworth
Shalford
Guildford
Wanborough
Ash
North Camp
Farnborough North
Blackwater
Sandhurst
Crowthorne
Wokingham
Winnersh
Winnersh Triangle
Early
Reading
And then have the two fast trains an hour both calling at:
Gatwick Airport
Redhill
Reigate
Dorking Deepdene
Guildford
Wokingham
Reading
Its just an idea but i think this would be more useful to passengers.
Hmm. Blackwater has excellent road connections (A30 and A331, with J4 of the M3 close by) and car parking facilities. Effectively it's the railhead for passengers living in Blackwater, Darby Green, Frogmore, Yateley, a large chunk of Camberley, Cove and Hawley. That would be a population of 50,000+. The latest entries/exits figures show passenger usage exceeding 500,000 a year and the Gatwick semi-fasts are well used here.
Any move to degrade the Blackwater service would be met with fierce resistance!
*Bizarrely, the next station, Farnborough North, in recent years has been reported as having 600,000+ usage a year, up from a more realistic 300,000 or so. This looks like a statistical frig, as many tickets are to "Farnborough Stations" and the statisticians have, in my opinion, weighed North's usage more than a little heavily compared with Farnborough Main. Farnborough North is likely to remain a backwater because it's on the eastern tip of the town, road access is poor (it's landlocked on one side and there's only a barrow crossing to get to the Guildford platform) and parking facilities are non-existent.