Crofton Park Trains All Messed Up. Bibbidi bobbidi boo.
"Well, serves you right, spoiling people’s best dreams."
- Cinderella
Until now, the Cinderella Line group, which campaigns for a better Crofton Park service, has operated in a parallel universe, where people just ask for things and public transport organisations deliver them promptly and efficiently.
Now, thanks to massive disruption on the Thameslink line, they have rejoined the rest of us in the real world. They write regarding the ongoing problems passengers are experiencing:
The message we have been feeding back to Thameslink, based on our experience is that this is simply unacceptable and cannot continue.
As always, it's the pressure from all our supporters that allow us to keep holding Thameslink to task so please continue to stand with us so we can do this. Our MP Vicky Foxcroft has already been in touch with Thameslink.
Why do services keep getting cancelled?
The national timetable planning process across the entire national rail network has been significantly delayed. Railway timetables are normally published 12 weeks in advance, however, rewriting the timetable from scratch across such a huge network is a massive undertaking and was not completed until a few weeks ago.
In addition to running passenger services, the timetable changes define the scope of engineering work to the track. This, in turn, affects the deployment of trains and train crew and the access they have to train maintenance depots. Less time than usual has been available to re-plan the driver allocations as well as the train stabling and maintenance requirements.
On top of all of this, there simply arent enough drivers trained to drive all of the new routes. Train drivers can’t simply turn up and drive any train – they need to understand and be cleared for, the routes that they drive.
We anticipate that it will get better as time goes on, however right now, Thameslink have been unwilling or unable to confirm how long this disruption might last so check before travelling and have a plan B.
Why are some of our services back to 4 carriages after being told they would always be 8 carriages?
Due to the implementation of the new timetables, SouthEastern have been drafted in by Thameslink to run some of our services on a temporary basis.
SouthEastern use older trains that can be split in two, and as they have a shortage of trains on their own network it means that some of our services may run short.
Why aren't there any more fast services from Catford? Our journey times have now increased for some services?
On the Cinderella Line, there is limited capacity for our Thameslink passenger services to run. The only way for us to have more services overall is for all our trains to stop at all stations, so they move in unison – exactly like they do on the tube.
Since Thameslink either can't or won't be clear about how long we might have to endure the current issues, thinking up alternative routes and checking before you travel are about the only things we can do.
For the full horror, click here.
