PRINCESS A ‘TEA PARTY’ BY COMPARISON
A HIGH-LEVEL working group is on the cards following claims by senior industry players that the enhanced Thameslink timetable planned for 2018 is unworkable in its present form. 20 trains per hour in the peaks are envisaged through the Thameslink central core in May 2018, ramping up to 24tph in December 2018. ‘In its current form, it is set to make Operation Princess look like a tea party’ commented one source, referring to the 2002 reorganisation of cross-country services that resulted in a number of problems.
GTR already announced in the summer (p18, August 2016 issue) that it planned to switch some destinations, so that services from the central core that were due to reach Purley and Caterham will instead serve Orpington and Rainham. This was in order to relieve pressure at Windmill Bridge Junction, where the Victoria and London Bridge routes converge north of Croydon.
But sources insist that more needs to be done to protect the integrity of services not only on the Brighton main line, but on the routes north of the capital as well. Eight peak trains per hour are due to come out of the Thameslink central core at Belle Isle Junction to serve the Great Northern ro…
