New Thameslink website launched
The Thameslink project has a useful new website.
The multi-billion pound project will bring major improvements to London Bridge and Blackfriars stations as well as adding capacity to the Crofton Park line and offering more cross-London services by 2015.
Thameslink will lengthen the maximum number of carriages from 8 to 12 and increase the peak number of trains through to north London up to 24 trains per hour by 2015. Next year, Blackfriars tube interchange will close in March, but by way of consolation, 92 new carriages will be added to the network in 2009.
The site contains information about how services will be affected by the works and currently notes that:
From 14 December 2008 and through 2009, there will be no cross-London Thameslink route service between London Bridge / Herne Hill and St Pancras International from 10.30pm to 4.30am, Mondays to Fridays, and during most weekends.
The cross-London route will also be suspended some weekends in the run-up to December.
34 comments:
And I'm involved in it, not the main works but some supporting stuff. Busy, busy, busy......
Fair play to you. You must be sick of the inevitable NIMBYism that surrounds the project.
There hasn't been a cross London service on Sundays on Thameslink for a few years now or at least 99% of Sundays, so this is nothing new. I always have to switch to the Tube when heading to my parents place on Thameslink from London Bridge, then back to rail again at St Pancras/Kings X Thameslink
Does anyone really intend being in Brockley in 2015?
Who knows. Some people who comment here have been in Brockley since the 1980s. A neighbour in one of the flats in the next building has lived in Manor Ave for nearly 20 years. Is it necessarily a register of failure to be living in one area for a couple of decades or more? My grandparents lived in the same house from 1932ish til their deaths in 2001/02 ish. It is certinly not my ultimate aim in life to move out of Brockley in the next few years!
We'll all be shunted into towerblocks in central Lewisham by 2015 and Brockley will all be fields.
We will live a simple feudal life and worship a whicker effigy of Steve Bullock (and an earth-mother clay figure of H Alexander)
peace be upon them
fields of mung beans?
You'll remember me when the west-side wind moves
Among the fields of mung beans
Looks like the crofton park thameslink service starts Mar 2009 according to the route map. Yay
Crofton Park to Gare Du Nord with one change! Zut alors!
Thameslink could do with a stop between East Croydon and London Bridge to have an interchange to the East London Line. Two choices: either Brockley or Forest Hill. If Brockley, it would make the case stronger for the High-level Link.
Waaaaayyyyy to late for any changes to the route or service. It's had it's 'TWA' approval - which takes years, timetabling and funding agreed. Who knows, in the future perhaps??
Monkeyboy many of us who read the blog don't work in the rail industry so acronyms such as "TWA" don't mean anything.
Sorry old boy, it's the Transport and Works Act. Something the lawyers get involved in, it's to do with getting permission to build new railway infrastructure. Takes years to get apparently.
If their construction skills are anything like their web site design skills . . . I would worry greatly about the service . . .
Monkeyboy, wouldn't it only be a timetable change for a stop at Brockley? Thameslink changes speed through the station anyway.
Sorry: Thameslink trains speed through the station anyway
Actually that is a good point. Thameslink crawls through North London, if you're on a slow train that is, but south of the river it stops at Blackfriars, London Bridge and then speeds through to East Croydon. It would be a good idea to have an interchange with the ELL. Monkeyboy, speak to your people....
dunno, you may be right. Network rail - not my area.
*slinks away with slopping shoulders....*
Monkeyboy, who would be best to approach about this: TfL, Network Rail, the Council, etc?
Department for Transport really, but you're whistling into the wind I'm sure. The new trains are much longer so the station will almost definitely need a major mod, big bucks.
I've often wondered about this. One obvious way of getting more people into trains is to make them longer - but this means you need longer platforms which often don't exist.
Why don't they go double-decker?
Wouldn't go under the bridges or fit in the tunnels.
Unless the passengers laid down in bunk beds of course
A Brockley high level station is one of the great missed opportunities of the East London Line extension, along with the lack of Central Line interchange at Shoreditch.
Thameslink trains definitely pass through Brockley. When I'm waiting to head back to the parents' place I see them flying through and wish they would just pull over for a moment...
I doubt Brockley high level will ever see the light of day. Even the ELL phase 2 funding is in question now
Is there even any room for Brockley High Level? The platforms would presumably be right by the windows of the Tea Factory flats.
Speaking of Brockley station, does anyone know the history of that house that's right on Brockley Cross, almost underneath the railway bridge? The window frames are painted red, IIRC. I presume it's the former station master's house or something like that?
...and i think you'll find that the Thameslink trains whizz through on the 'fast' track not the slow one so you'll have a bit of a gap to jump in order to reach the train.
Dunno, I'm not working on the actual train/track malarkey.
Yeah Thameslink trains zoom through in the central track, but presumably at some point earlier in the journey there must be points to allow them to move to the other track to possibly stop off at Brockley rather than physically "jumping" across?!
I think I read somewhere that that house is something to do with the old canal that ran along Shardeloes Rd and at Brockley Cross diverted along what is now the route of the railway. The buildings on Coulgate St apparently date from the time of the canal, when Brockley was all rhubarb fields and the conservation area was a merely glint in a Victorian developers eye
The plan is for Brockley to cope with 12-car trains by 2011 anyway, so there shouldn't be a problem on the length of Thameslink trains.
With the High-level Link, anyone know why Lewisham Council opposed it? I find it bizarre.
Cost reasons? Remember, the council have a habit of ignoring Brockley (we are too prosperous). They spend all our tax money on white elephants in lewisham central.
Patrick, yes - the house used to be the station masters house for the upper level station.
12 car ELL trains, Thameslink trains are different, signalling is different. Sorry, I'm being negative I know but it's not a straight forward addition. Also the additional Thameslink trains would have to stop, so would the additional ELL trains on top of the existing service. Ain't gonna happen I'm affraid.
I agree with Monkeyboy on this, thameslink will not stop at Brockley. If my memory serves me correctly they will be stopping at Nunhead and Crofton Park.
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