I don’t think these “teething problems” will simply go away soon, it’s not as simple as that the timetable isn’t workable at all.
And try telling the folks down in Higham that the “teething” will be irrelevant.
I completely agree, Thameslink ditched all plans to run services to anywhere near the Dartford routes years ago because even back then they said it would be unworkable, though they did keep the possibility of running peak services via Sidcup where there are fewer conflicting moves to worry about about.
Why didn’t they run this service to Epsom via West Croydon is beyond me??
Good question - nobody could sensibly complain about that, rolling stock aside, as it'd have exactly the same calling pattern as the current Southern service. Genuinely giving a new journey opportunity!
Although the new Epsom to London Bridge service has shown something a little odd in the timetable. Previously to this timetable, all up trains from the West Croydon direction would be routed onto the up fast just south of Norwood Junction, now they are all scheduled to be routed slow into Norwood Junction and cross over to the fast afterwards. In the past the slow
line platform was only used for fast services if the fast platform was blocked (which was scheduled a few times in the peaks due to trains coming from ECR / WCY at near identical times)
I wonder if this is for reliability for some reason. On the ground to the passenger, it's just a pain though, no longer is there a "slow" and "fast" platform.
Given the uneven times between these trains and the likelihood of them being late it results in more transfer between platforms than is necessary. Although that seems to have been a goal of the new timetable, pointlessly increasing interchange at multiple completely unsuitable places.