Yes I think the Thameslink takeover of that service was partly to remove that thorn while the TfL takeover was still alive (and/or because TL can't run the 2tph they're running to Rainham through the more desirable BML corridor until East Croydon and Windmill Bridge Jct are upgraded). Gravesend and Sevenoaks would still have to be integrated into Oyster/Contactless zones, but given extensions to Reading and Gatwick that's nothing.
It appears the transfer of great northern services are slowly proceeding to tfl grant shapps appears more pragmatic than Chris Grayling. So I wouldn't say it would be ruled out for political reasons.
Something like this?
Something like this?
View attachment 103235
Picture shows "SOUTHEASTERN" in all capitals in the same colours as the current logo but a slightly different font, similar to the Northern 'rebrand' a few years ago.
(No, this isn't a leek of anything official; it's a joke).
Everyone know there's no more paths at the terminals.
I think the plan was to split between cannon Street and charing Cross but have a fixed terminal point so you wouldn't get a mixture of Cannon Street and charing Cross services calling at Hayes say it would be either or.
Given the ERMA was due to end on 16th October anyway, OLR will almost certainly have already been working away in the background in case (as has happened) there was no extension forthcoming.
It would indeed hardly make sense for SE trains to lose access to Cannon Street for weekday peak services.
I disagree, there's only 4 terminals for Southeastern if that, counting London Victoria, Charing Cross, St Pancras and Cannon Street although I'm not sure you can count Blackfriars seeing as it only gets 2 arrivals and one departure a day in public service.
Pre-covid Southeastern had quite a few peak services serving Blackfriars, two Maidstone East line runs each way, peak Beckenham Jct to BFR stoppers and a few Chatham mainline stoppers to/from Rochester, IIRC.
But not at the moment so currently you cannot count Blackfriars as a terminus for Southeastern until it sees a massive increase in SE services using it, the fact that pre covid it saw quite a few SE services is neither here or there.
You could use that argument and say that Thameslink is pretty integrated with the Southern network too so my original point still stands, it doesn't matter that Thameslink serves London Blackfriars because the original statement was about SouthEastern which is a altogether different operator to Thameslink.
Don't forget though that part of the reason the Rainham train is a Thameslink service is that it isn't practical to access Charing Cross from the Greenwich line and the other part is that there isn't anywhere sensible to send an 8-car Thameslink service on the Southern network.
Presumably TfL sees Peterborough and Littlehampton as too far outside of London, but could the St. Albans - Sutton loop and Orpington and Rainham services be viable, or would having multiple operators through the central core be more trouble than its worth?
Windmill Junction isn't getting upgraded any time soon. An eight-car service isn't particularly helpful via East Croydon. The Rainham service will be fairly well established by the time any work is done. What replaces the capacity via Greenwich?
Widely tipped by who? Can TfL afford it all of a sudden?
But they aren't being widely tipped
