THAMESLINK TIMETABLE
I wept virtual tears of frustration when I read in ‘Informed Sources’ (September issue) that Govia Thameslink Railway’s timetable offer in November 2017 ‘came back with hundreds of services in the bid rejected’.
Major timetable changes were something the railway used to handle really well. Even as recently as December 2008 the major revision of the West Coast timetable and in particular the revision to the multi-operator Wolverhampton – Coventry corridor was competently handled by Network Rail. There was no question of bids being rejected because, by the time the operators had to make their bids, both NR and operators knew what the timetable would be in considerable detail. This was achieved because NR had delegated the process to a couple of experienced and knowledgeable planners who toured the country presenting their latest ideas to passenger and freight operators and receiving suggestions back. There was a ‘West Coast Steering Group’ that got in the way from time to time, but they managed to work round that.
The ‘Informed Sources’ articles about Thameslink and South Western showed that NR has now strangled itself in its own processes and I doubt whether it can disentangle itse…
