The Thameslink Sheduling Problem
I have been said by others, to know about scheduling. Admittedly, it is with respect to resources in large projects, but what is the difference mathmatically between scheduling fitters, engineers, bedspaces, cranes and helicopters on a rig in the middle of the North Sea and the scheduling of passengers, trains and platforms in rural Surrey.
Probably not much in reality, except for one major difference; politics.
If you tell a body to turn up at Aberdeen Airport to get a helicopter to the rig where they are to work at 07:30, he or she probably won’t complain, but if you say that because of Thameslink all services from your station will be going to London Bridge and through the tunnel to Cambridge and there will be four trains an hour at two minutes past the quarter hour, he or she will probably write angrily to everybody from the local paper to his MP and trhe Archbishop of Canterbury. Judicial review will also be threatened.
Sadly with the Sutton Loop, Network Rail’s plans were overturned by Parliament, which sets a dangerous precedent. Network Rail may have been wrong anyway, but I am just using it, to show how sensitive scheduling of trains can be.
So there is a need to provide a service from all stations, that is all things to all men and women, their dogs, children and relatives from Peru and Timbuctoo.
In my view the two branch lines that I visited in A Trip To Tattenham Corner and A Trip To Caterham illustrate the problem well and also show the level of service required.
Caterham Station has an Off Peak service of two trains per hour into London Bridge and another two into Victoria.
It would appear that some of the Victoria trains can be used to get London Bridge with a change at Purley, which involved a wait of ten minutes or so.
When speaking as the man on the Dalston train, this is not good enough.
- I get four services an hour to each of Clapham Junction, Crystal Palace, New Cross and West Croydon every hour.
- If I want to get to East Croydon, the fastest route at any particular time may mean changing at New Cross Gate or Norwood Junction, often with a change of platform.
As can be seen, what I have is better than Caterham does, but it is still not perfect.
My route to anywhere in South London, should be the same every time I go that destination and it should be something like take a train to X, stay on the platform or walk across it and the train to your destination will arrive within a few minutes.
If the timetable is the optimal one, then the rules could be published.
So to return to Caterham and the Caterham Line to Purley.
An ideal service would be four trains an hour of a sufficient number of cars leaving the same few minutes after each quarter hour.
- Destinations would be a mixture of Victoria or London Bridge.
- Trains would probably stop as now, at all stations until Purley.
- At a station before or at East Croydon, there would be a convenient same platform interchange to services to other appropriate northern destinations of London Bridge, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, Victoria, Thameslink and Dalston Junction.
Possible interchange stations would be Purley, South Croydon, East Croydon, New Cross Gate and London Bridge.
My proposal may seem ambitious, but I believe it is possible.
It might even be easier, if all four services from Caterham went to a particular terminal or even only went as far as Purley or South Croydon. But anybody other than someone like myself, who is not part of the decision process, would be out of a job, once everybody protested about how will they get to Victoria.
Commuters have all the intelligence and stubbornness of sheep.
What they probably need is something like this.
- Four trains an hour leaving at easily remembered times.
- If necessary an easy interchange to their preferred destination.
- An alternative route, should something happen on the journey, like being called on their mobile phone to an urgent meeting away from the normal workplace.
- A flexible return journey.
- A seat, that is preferably by a window with a table!
- A twenty-four hour service to allow for social events after work.
- Lots of convenient on-platform services.
- Free wi-fi and power sockets.
Everybody will have their own version of this.
Interestingly the Thameslink Class 700 trains were designed without wi-fi and power sockets. This article in the Railway Gazette has details. This is said.
DfT ordered the Class 700 EMUs without wi-fi, seat-back tables or at-seat power sockets in standard class, but on February 11 announced that £50m would be made available for the installation of wi-fi on rolling stock operated by GTR, Southeastern, Chiltern and Arriva Trains Wales, Discussions are now ongoing between Siemens, GTR and Cross London Trains, which was awarded the DfT contract to finance, supply and maintain the new Thameslink fleet.
According to Siemens, the installation of wi-fi would not be difficult, but there would be a significant weight gain from adding power sockets. The cost and practicality of seat-back tables is also being discussed.
So don’t always blame the train company. In this case blame the Department for Transport under Blair’s Government.
If we take Tattenham Corner and the Tattenham Corner Line, it should expect nothing less, than Caterham and the Caterham Line.
After Thameslink is completed there will be two twelve-car Class 700 trains, so there’s two London Bridge services an hour, which makes a nice four from Purley if you have two from Caterham.
As sometimes trains for the two lines split and join at Purley, I do feel that passengers who use the two lines would not be averse to some form of interchange at Purley.
The completed Thameslink seems to be designed like this, with respect to Purley,
There are five services which run twice per hour all day, which are the backbone of the route.
- Bedford to Brighton – semi-fast
- Bedford to Gatwick Airport – via Purley and Redhill
- Cambridge to Brighton – semi-fast – via Purley
- Peterborough to Horsham – via Purley and Redhill
- Cambridge to Tattenham Corner- semi-fast – via Purley
All of these services go through the core, London Bridge and East Croydon.
But none seem to be calling anywhere else between London Bridge and Purley.
According to Wikipedia, this is the service pattern from Purley towards London.
- 2 to London Victoria, calling at Purley Oaks, South Croydon, East Croydon, Selhurst, Thornton Heath, Norbury, Streatham Common, Balham, Wandsworth Common, Clapham Junction and Battersea Park (faster services to Clapham Junction and London Victoria are available by changing at East Croydon)
- 8 to London Bridge, of which
- 4 call at East Croydon and Norwood Junction
- 2 call at East Croydon, Norwood Junction and New Cross Gate
- 2 call at Purley Oaks, South Croydon, East Croydon, Norwood Junction, Anerley, Penge West, Sydenham, Forest Hill, Honor Oak Park, Brockley and New Cross Gate
And this is the pattern towards the Coast.
- 4 to Caterham, calling at Kenley, Whyteleafe and Whyteleafe South
- 3 to Tattenham Corner, calling at Reedham, Coulsdon Town, Woodmansterne, Chipstead, Kingswood and Tadworth
- 1 to Tonbridge, calling at Coulsdon South, Redhill, Nutfield, Godstone, Edenbridge, Penshurst and Leigh
- 1 to Reigate, calling at Coulsdon South, Merstham and Redhill
- 2 to Horsham, calling at Coulsdon South, Merstham, Redhill, Earlswood, Salfords, Horley, Gatwick Airport, Three Bridges, Crawley, Ifield, Faygate and Littlehaven
After Thameslink opens there will be eight Thameslink services, made up of two each of the four out of five services (All accept 1) that call at Purley in both directions.
In my view Thameslink need to answer the following questions.
Given that Thameslink is unlikely to stop at New Cross Gate, Norwood Junction and any other station on the East London Line, what is the recommended route between Purley and stations on the East London Line like Whitechapel, Shoreditch High Street and Dalston Junction?
This is obviously something that I am interested in.
Everything I seem to read seems to say that the East London Line has nothing to do with Thamwalink and it’s up to Transport for London to sort.
At Purley, will there be improved interchange between lines?
I am thinking if in particular, whether there will there be same platform or walk across interchange between.
- Services going along the Caterham and Tattenham Corner Lines,
- Thameslink services
- Those to and from Victoria?
At present the interchange may be step-free, but the subway isn’t the best.
Get Purley station right and it might be the key to providing four trains per hour to Caterham and Tattenham Corner.
At it’s simplest it could even be a shuttle service from both branches, that met the Thameslink and Victoria services.
Conclusion
It does seem to me that at present the route planners have a very difficult problem and are struggling to find a solution that suits all passengers; regular or occasional.
I suspect that this part of Thameslink isn’t unique to the service in that respect.
A Trip To Caterham
On Monday, I took a trip to Caterham station, as it is one of the Thameslink destinations. This Google Map shows shows the station.
Caterham Station
Note how it is a two-platform station in a confined space. There would appear to be a large car psrk on one side of the station, with a Waitrose underneath.
I took these pictures whilst I was there.
The Caterham branch and the station is typical of many branch lines in the UK and has a four trains per hour service to London; two to each of Victoria and London Bridge.
A Trip To Tattenham Corner
Tattenham Corner station was built to serve the racecourse at Epsom as this Goggle Map shows.
Tattenham Corner Station And Epsom Racecoiurse
Perhaps because of the racecourse and the Downs, unlike Epsom which is in Fare Zone 7, Tattenham Corner is in Fare Zone 6, so it is in Freedom Pass territory.
I went to take these pictures and it should have been an easy trip from London Bridge, but I got the wrong train and had to change at South Croydon and Purley.
It was very much a trundle through typical Surrey countryside of woods, fields and semi-detached houses.
I do wonder if the team that decided that Cambridge would be the other end of the Thameslink service from Tattenham Corner were racing enthusiasts, but it will certainly come in handy for racing, as driving from Newmarket to Epsom is not that easy.
I also wonder, if as Thameslink develops, then this station will get used as a Park-and-Ride station close to the M25 for London, as the Class 700 trains will be a large increase ion capacity.
South Croydon Station
I took these pictures at South Croydon station.
I think it would be true to say, that South Croydon station is looking for a place in the rail network South of London.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
- 2 to London Victoria via East Croydon and Norbury
- 2 to London Bridge via East Croydon and Forest Hill
- 4 to Caterham
Which isn’t much for a station with six platforms.
As I watched for about fifteen minutes, I saw all manner of trains speed through including a new Class 700 train.
When Thameslink opens in 2018, current plans don’t have any trains calling at South Croydon. I think that these will be changed so that a regular pattern of four trains an hour in both directions will call, as Thameslink will want to give passengers at as many stations as possible access to Thameslink services.
If they don’t, I hope they are ready for the protests.
Anybody at station X without Thameslink will be complaining if station Y does!
New Track South Of London Bridge
These pictures were taken as I took the 10:29 to Caterham from London Bridge.
There certainly seems to be a lot of new track going in.
Works Around The Bermondsey Dive-Under
I took these pictures as I came into London Bridge on a train from Caterham.
It would appear the Bermondsey Dive-Under is coming together.
Thameslink’s Proposed Service In A Few Years
I’m putting this up for my own help, as I often need to answer my own questions about the services and where they call.
Much of what I am using here has come from the Wikipedia entry for the Thameslink Programme. Imporant sections are.
- Bermondsey Dive-Under
- Provisional Timestable
- Rolling Stock
- The Last Phase Of The Programme (Key Output 2)
This a map of Thameslink Services.
ThamesLink Programme Map
I shall finish with a section of Questions and Answers..
At Which Stations Will All Thameslink Services Call?
St. Pancras International, Farringdon, City Thameslink and London Blackfriars.
So if you want to change your destination tro another Thameslink branch, you would get off your train at any of these stations and wait for one that serves your destination.
At Which Stations Will Thameslink Call Between London Bridge and East Croydon?
None!
How Will You Get To Thameslink From Dalston Junction And The East London Line?
It would appear that there will be no easy way to do it, as no Thameslink trains will stop anywhere between London Bridge and East Croydon.
Where Is The Journey Time Calculator?
You tell me! I can’t find one!
Why Is The Sutton Loop Still in the Programme?
Under Political Developments, the Wikipedia entry says this.
Network Rail had planned to terminate Sutton Loop Thameslink trains at Blackfriars station, rather than have them continue through central London as at present. This upset many residents in South London and their local politicians, who saw it as a reduction in services rather than an improvement. In response to pressure, government has ordered Network Rail to reverse the decision.
I will add a few more questiuons later.
An Ideal Oxted Line
This post was suggested by a comment by Ben H on my post called Untangling The Brighton Main Line. He said this about Oxted Line services.
Cease all services between the Oxted lines and Victoria (fast lines). All Oxted line services should go to London Bridge and (excluding diesels) become part of Thameslink.
Oxted services should operate single-line working between Norwood Junction and Sanderstead, with East Croydon’s easternmost platform island acting as the passing loop.
In one way, what he says is a no-no. If Oxted services were switched from Victoria to London Bridge, all the commuters would be up in arms and would challenge the change of London terminal in every way possible. Remember what happened when Network Rail proposed terminating all Sutton Loop services at Blackfriars. This is from Wikipedia in Political Developments under Thameslink Program.
Network Rail had planned to terminate Sutton Loop Thameslink trains at Blackfriars station, rather than have them continue through central London as at present. This upset many residents in South London and their local politicians, who saw it as a reduction in services rather than an improvement. In response to pressure, government has ordered Network Rail to reverse the decision.
So Oxted services will have to go into Victoria, until something so much better comes along, they forget about it. Bribery is a powerful tool.
The Current Oxted Line Service
So what services go down the two branches of the Oxted Line?
In the Off Peak the following services run.
- Two trains per hour go between Victoria and East Grinstead
- One train per hour between London Bridge and Uckfield.
There are extra trains in the peak, as this Departures display at Oxted station shows.
Trains From Oxted
But compared to say the Chingford Branch into Liverpool Street, which has at least four trains per hour all day, it is a very sick joke of a service. And a lot of the Chingford Branch services are eight cars!
Four Trains Per Hour To East Grinstead And Uckfield?
I strongly believe that services need to be four trains an hour, as they are on the East London Line to the four Southern terminals of Clapham Junction, Crystal Palace, New Cross and West Croydon.
So the question has to be asked if East Grinstead and Uckfield should have a four trains per hour service?
My view is that they do, if you want to have a turn-up-and-go service!
Fifteen minutes may seem a long wait, but if you can get a coffee and a paper, it can be quite a short time.
So what frequencies do other places in Sussex have to and from London?
- Bognor Regis – 2 trains per hour.
- Eastbourne – 2 trains per hour.
- Hastings – 3 trains per hour.
- Hove – 2 trains per hour.
- Littlehampton – 2 trains per hour.
- Worthing – 2 trains per hour.
These are better than Uckfield and just about on a par with East Grinstead.
Thameslink Will Be A Game-Changer
The completion of the Thameslink Programme will bring an increase in capacity all the way from Brighton and Gatwick Airport to London and beyond.
This a map of Thameslink Programme.
ThamesLink Programme Map
Brighton and Gatwick Airport after the upgrade will have frequencies of upwards of eight and twenty trains per hour respectively and a choice of destinations including.
- Blackfriars
- Cambridge
- Farringdon for Crossrail
- London Bridge
- Luton
- Peterborough
- St. Pancras
- Victoria
I also think that if passengers were prepared to change at Brighton, Gatwick or East Croydon, there could be substantial increases in faster services to London and beyond from places on the Coastway Lines like Bognor Regis, Eastbourne, Hastings and Worthing etc.
There is possibly an argument to build some south-facing bay platforms at Gatwick, so that additional services can be run from there down the two Coastways. Thus a passenger from Hastings to London say, would have in addition to the direct service perhaps two or three with a step-free change at Gatwick, where they could choose either a Victoria or a Thameslink service.
What happens in the future will depend on how passengers use the improved Thameslink and what Gatwick decides to do to gain more passengers.
It will be interesting to see how the pattern of commuters changes in the next few years.
Have Thameslink Got Their Act Together?
One thing that puzzles me, is that I can’t find anything on the Internet, which talks about speeded up services on Thameslink after improvement. So am I right to assume that they’re spending all this money to provide more trains with larger capacity to more destinations in the same time as now?
There is no journey time calculator on the Thameslink Programme web site like there is on the Crossrail web site.
Obviously, it isn’t provided as the truth may be at odds with how wonderful the PR guys believe Thameslink is going to be.
Thameslink To Uckfield and East Grinstead
It might seem logical to run Thameslink trains down the Oxted Line to Uckfield and East Grinstead.
In fact, it is planned to run an eight-car service between West Hampstead Thameslink and East Grinstead in the Peak.
So why not run two four-car Class 700 trains that join and split at Oxted?
- The trains only come in fixed formations of eight and twelve cars.
- A sixteen-car train would probably be too long for the tunnels and the trains don’t have the end gangways needed for tunnels.
- The Uckfield Branch is not electrified.
- It would probably not be a good decision to build four-car trains for one branch of Thameslink.
Given the chequered history of the birth of Thameslink and the design of the trains, I think that four-car trains that could run in pairs, were discarded from the design of the railway. As it’s also common for trains to be split and joined all over southern England, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some shorter trains in the future on Thameslink.
Services Not Serving Gatwick Airport At East Croydon Station
If consolidation of services can take place at Brighton and Gatwick Airport, would it be possible to do the same at East Croydon station. These are the services south from East Croydon, that don’t terminate at Three Bridges and Brighton or pass through Gatwick Airport.
- 2 trains per hour from Victoria to Caterham
- 2 trains per hour from London Bridge to Caterham
- 2 trains per hour from London Bridge to Tattenham Corner, which when the Thameslink Programme is complete will start from Cambridge.
- 2 trains per our from Victoria to East Grinstead
- 1 train per hour from London Bridge to Uckfield
- 1 train per hour from Victoria to Tonbridge via Redhill
- 1 train per hour from Victoria to Reigate via Redhill
To summarise there are eleven trains an hour of which six go to Victoria and five to London Bridge. I assume it’s all for historic reasons and nothing to do with any serious railway planning.
Thankfully, the Tattenham Corner services are being taken out of the mix and will become part of Thameslink.
Another Gatwick Express Route
An interesting point is that Reigate and Tonbridge are both on the East West Route that connects Reading to Ashford International, via Guildford, Reigate, Redhill, Gatwick Airport and Tonbridge.
I believe that this could be a second Gatwick Express route to link the Airport to Wales and the West, and Continental rail services. So a four trains per hour service from Reading to Ashford international via Gatwick could benefit a lot more than those going to and from the Airport.
Platforms 5 And 6 At East Croydon Station
Intriguingly, all of these non-Gatwick services from London, seem to go south from Platform 6 at East Croydon station and go North from Platform 5.
There are also some other services like London Bridge to Horsham, that also use these platforms.
So do the savvy passengers coming from the South wanting to go to London Bridge, but from a station served by Victoria , change at East Croydon for the alternative destination?
Interestingly, if you use the National Rail’s Journey Planner to look at services from Victoria to Uckfield or London Bridge to East Grinstead, it sends you via a change at East Croydon.
So I would suspect that regular travellers know how to use East Croydon as an optimal interchange to get to their correct destination.
These pictures show Platform 5 and 6 at East Croydon station.
It is a well-equipped island platform, with coffee and food stalls, a waiting room, an information booth and toilets. The bridge at the Northern end and the ramp at the Southern end give step-free access to the two entrances and the other platforms.
Compared to some draughty, unwelcoming and scruffy places, where I’ve changed trains, it is one of the best single-platform interchanges.
The only thing that the island platform lacks is an Oyster reader, so that those like me, who need to touch-out and touch-in again, as they are changing from a Zone 6 ticket to contactless for Gatwick Airport, don’t have to walk up and through the barrier. I wrote about this in Contactless Between East Croydon And Gatwick Airport, which showed that at present contactless cards may be cheaper!
Increasing Capacity on the Oxted Line Is Not That Simple
Various factors come into play when providing extra capacity on the Oxted Line and I’ll discuss them in the next few sections.
Extra Services Through Platforms 5 And 6 At East Croydon
I’ve looked at an hour in the rush hour and a dozen trains have travelled South through platforms 5 and 6, with some gaps between trains being as low as two or three minutes.
Many platforms in London handle upwards of sixteen to twenty trains an hour. Londoners and visitors, also know how to use platforms like these as interchanges, by getting off one train and then getting another one a few minutes later.
When Thameslink is fully upgraded, passengers from Peterborough, Cambridge and Bedford, will change to their ultimate southern Thameslink destination at stations like St.Pancras Thameslink, Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars and London Bridge.
So on a brief analysis, it would appear that Platforms 5 and 6 at East Croydon are not the limiting factor, provided that signalling, track, trains and staff are all working as they should. The platforms also offer valuable interchange opportunities to set up the journey you need.
It gives a simple rule for getting to any of the stations on the various inner branch lines to Caterham, Uckfield, East Grinstead and others not served by Thameslink.
You get any train on either of these branches to East Croydon and then wait on Platform 5/6 for the next train to your ultimate destination.
Thameslink to Tattenham Corner And Horsham
When I went to Gatwick Airport to write about the contactless ticketing, I arrived on Platform 5 at East Croydon on a Horsham train, that had started from London Bridge, that I’d caught at New Cross Gate. These services run twice every hour, as does a service from London Bridge to Tattenham Corner.
When Thameslink is completed, two services to Horsham and two to Tattenham Corner will become all day twelve-car services as follows.
- Peterborough to Horsham. – Currently this service stops at New Cross Gate and Norwood Junction between London Bridge and East Croydon.
- Cambridge to Tattenham Corner – Currently some services stop at Norwood Junction between London Bridge and East Croydon.
Incidentally, I do wonder if the person, who devised the Thameslink schedule was a horse racing enthusiast. A twelve car train from Cambridge to Tattenham Corner would be ideal for getting between the two important racing centres of Newmarket and Epsom.
Will these four services continue to use Platforms 5/6 at East Croydon?
I think they should as it would give all of those places like East Grinstead, Purley, Uckfield and all the other stations currently connected to Platform 5/6, a same-platform interchange to a four trains per hour Thameslink service to the East Coast Main Line.
If passengers want the other northern branch to Luton and Bedfird, they would change in the core.
Will these Thameslink services still continue to stop between East Croydon and London Bridge?
Judging by some of the chatter on the Internet, it looks like there’s a good chance they won’t!
Extra Northbound Destinations From Platform 5 And 6 At East Croydon
East Croydon station frustrates me, in that to get there from my closest station at Dalston Junction is not simple.
- Change at New Cross Gate or Norwood Junction stations.
- Travel to West Croydon station and get the Tramlink.
So could a third northbound destination be added to platform 5 and 6 at East Croydon?
I believe that the answer is yes, especially as there is spare capacity on the East London Line to the North of Surrey Quays station. Although, I doubt that Southern’s trains could run north of that station.
- Personally, I would find a Dalston Junction service to East Croydon, much more useful than the current one to West Croydon.
- Crystal Palace possibly has the space.
- It would be very handy, if it were possible to have a terminal platform somewhere in the Shoreditch High Street/Whitechapel area.
- Transport for London are also thinking about a station in the Penge area, where the East London Line and the Chatham Main Line cross.
What is done in the end will depend on the travel statistics. I suspect that the new Penge station and swapping the West Croydon service to East Croydon are the most likely options.
Gatwick Express To Old Oak Common And Milton Keynes
Platform 5/6 At East Croydon is the Southern terminus of a service to Milton Keynes that uses the West London Line.
I believe that this service could be upgraded to be part of Gatwick Express.
- It would use the same trains as the other Gatwick Expresses.
- Hopefully, it could run more than once an hour.
- It would create a simple link from Gatwick Airport to the Midlands and the North.
- It would serve the new Old Oak Common station for HS2, the West Coast Main Line and the North London Line.
- It would terminate at Milton Keynes on the East West Rail Link.
I certainly think, that this is a third route for Gatwick Express.
The Tattenham Corner Paths Won’t Always Be Released
After Thameslink is fully open, two of the services from Tattenham Corner to London Bridge, will become Thameslink services to Cambridge.
But as some Caterham and Tattenham Corner services to Victoria join and split at Purley, this might not mean that two extra paths an hour are available to London Bridge.
I have one question about this Thameslink Tatterham Corner to Cambridge service. Which platforms will it use at
Can South Croydon Help Sort Things Out?
South Croydon station could be a key to providing better services through East Croydon. Look at this Google Map of the station and the junction to the South.
South Croydon Station And Junction
Note.
- The station currently has five platforms, but I don’t think it could be called a modern station in terms of facilities.
- The junction south of the station, is where the Oxted Line for Uckfield and East Grinstead leaves the Brighton Main Line.
- The Southern service from Milton Keynes to East Croydon, used to terminate at South Croydon.
Many of the services that use Plstforms 5 and 6 at East Croydon pass through South Croydon and I feel that a properly remodelled station could be an alternative interchange.
I think that South Croydon could also be an alternative terminus for East London Line services that currently go to West Croydon.
Norwood Junction Station
I also find Norwood Junction station frustrating and judging by the calls for some Thameslink services to call at the station, I suspect others do too.
If I’m going south on the East London Line, I can change to various services to places like East Croydon, Horsham and Tattenham Corner, by just walking across the island platform 5/4.
But going north, you have to dive into a subway to get to platform 1, rather than using the other side of the island platform 2/3.
There will be a lot of Thameslink services passing through the station and if some stopped, it would be possible to have simple cross-platform access between the East London Line and Thameslink.
A New Penge Station
Transport for London have proposed a Penge Interchange station in the Transport Infrastructure Plan for 2050, If it were to be built it would link the East London Line and the \Chatham Main Line, where they crossed just North of Penge West station. I wrote about the station in An Exploration At Penge.
This station could be an interchange between the following services.
- Chatham Main Line
- East London Line
- London Bridge to East Croydon Services
- Thameslink
As the site is quite large, there is also space for some terminal platforms facing South.
Conclusion
I have no idea what will happen, but it would seem to be possible to increase the services on the Oxted Line towards the ultimate aim of one every fifteen minutes to both termini.
The simplest solution would see the Oxted Line relegated to a branch line, where some services terminated at a rebuilt and rejuvenated South Croydon station with cross-platform access to Victoria, London Bridge and Thameslink services.
But I do doubt that four services an hour on both branches can be accommodated in the main London termini.
I do think though that there is so much flexibility, that what happens in the end will be a pleasant surprise. And probably totally acceptable to everybody except Disgusted in Tunbridge Wells!
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From Cannon Street To London Bridge
I took this journey after the Christmas reorganisation of services through London Bridge station.
It’s all coming on.
The next big date is August, when a bit more of London Bridge station opens.
Connectivity Around Clapham
I’ve talked a lot lately about improving the rail lines and especially their connectivity in South London in quite a few posts lately.
So I extracted this map from carto.metro.free.fr
Clapham Lines
I think we have to congratulate the French behind these accurate metro maps.
Note the following.
- In a few years time, there will be two high-capacity North-South routes through the area; Thameslink and the Northern Line, which meet with the Bakerloo Line at Elephant and Castle station.
- Thameslink at Farringdon station and the Northern Line at Moorgate and Tottenham Court Road will have excellent connections to Crossrail.
- Thameslink goes through Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction and will have at least six eight-car trains all day, with extra services in the peak.
- Herne Hill is a big railway bottleneck, with as yet no sensible proposal to solve it.
- The Northern Line will have at least twenty trains per hour all day, between Morden and Kennington stations.
- The Victoria Line is also important to the area, as it will provide a thirty trains per hour service to from Brixton to Walthamstow Central via Stockwell on the Northern Line.
- The East London Line connects Clapham Junction in the west via Clapham High Street and Surrey Quays to Highbury and Islington in the north-east.
- The East London Line is getting crowded and increased frequencies will happen in 2019.
- The Law of New Routes, Stations and Trains will mean that Thameslink will attract traffic and the trains will quickly get busy.
- In the future Balham station could be served by Crossrail 2.
I believe that expecting Crossrail 2 to solve South London’s transport problems, is a bit like waiting for the United States to help the beleaguered good guys out in the First and Second World Wars.
Like the Americans, Crossrail 2 will arrive, but we have to make the best of what we’ve got in the meantime.
Perhaps these projects will help.
More And Better Designed Stations
Transport for London (TfL) have very sophisticated train and passenger modelling systems, which enable them to propose where improvements to stations should be made.
Sometimes this type of analysis, gives surprising results, that are counter-intuitive.
For example, I pointed out in Faster London Trains Could Make Your Commute Even Longer, how French research had shown this premise, to sometimes be true.
But the research also showed that in certain cases, extra stations could make journeys faster.
From my personal observations at Angel station, I sometimes think that trains arrive and depart faster on the wider southbound platform, rather than the narrow northbound one.
Camberwell Station On Thameslink
A couple of miles north of Loughborough Junction station is the disused Camberwell station, which Transport for London are proposing to reopen.
In their report on the Bakerloo Line Extension, TfL give this concise summary on reopening Camberwell station.
A new station at Camberwell would be a significantly lower cost option to a Tube extension, whilst serving the same catchment area. Investigations show significant journey time improvements could accrue to Camberwell passengers and that operationally there may be scope to integrate re-opening of the station into the launch of the completed Thameslink programme.
We will therefore undertake further planning work with Network Rail and the London Borough of Southwark to assess the proposal.
From their statement, it would appear that TfL have done an extensive analysis.
I would not be surprised, if this enthusiastic statement wasn’t followed through.
Northern Line Stations
Several of the Northern Line stations are relics of the line’s Victorian past and stations are slated for major improvements over the next few years.
- Bank – A big development has just been announced.
- Camden Town – I wrote about the proposed development of Camden Town station in The Camden Town Upgrade Exhibition.
- Elephant and Castle – A big property development is planned, which incorporates a new Northern Line station.
- Moorgate – Crossrail will improve the station.
- Old Street – Developments are planned in the area, which could result in an improved station.
These developments will probably mean that after the Northern Line Extension to Battersea is completed, most major stations between Camden Town and Kennington will have been upgraded.
Only the two Northern branches and the Morden branch will have not received a substantial number of upgraded stations with complete step-free access, wide safe platforms and escalators.
I think we’ll see other improvements to stations, especially an upgrading of the two island platform stations at Clapham North and Clapham Common.
The Herne Hill Loop On The Victoria Line
One constraint on the efficiency of the Victoria Line, is reversing the trains at Brixton station. There have been proposals in the past to crete a reversing loop with another station on the loop at Herne Hill station. I wrote about it in detail in Will The Victoria Line Go To Herne Hill?
This extension will only be built, if it is value-for-money in improving the Victoria line, despite the positive secondary effects it might have in the Herne Hill area!
An Interchange Hub At Streatham Common Station
Transport for London has recently proposed a interchange hub at Streatham Common, which I wrote about in Puzzled Over Streatham Common Station.
In my article, I showed that a well-designed hub could connect the following lines.
- The Sutton Loop Line Of Thameslink – Linking To Wimbledon and Sutton
- The Brighton Main Line
- Tramlink – With the possible use of tram-trains.
- East London Line – Linking to East London, Kent and Essex
- West London Line – Linking to Old Oak Common for HS2 and the West Coast Main Line
I very much think that the idea of an interchange hub at Streatham Common is a masterstroke.
Especially, as it will take the pressure off Wimbledon and East Croydon!
Another Branch Of The East London Line
The East London Line currently has four trains per hour in both directions across South London to and from Clapham Junction station.
This branch is getting very busy and from 2019, an extra two trains per hour will use this route.
But will Clapham Junction be able to cope with the extra services?
If it can’t, a possible alternative would be to run some trains from Peckham Rye via Tulse Hill to a terminus at Streatham Common.
Clapham High Street, Brixton And Brockley Interchanges
These are three possible interchanges with the Easst London Line in South London.
- Clapham High Street and Clapham North stations could be connected, if it was decided to improve the Northern Line through Clapham.
- Interchange between all the lines at Brixton station has been mentioned by TfL and I wrote about it in Could The Various Lines At Brixton Be Connected?
- TfL have also suggested that Brockley station could be a potential interchange hub and I wrote about it in A Report On The Bakerloo Line Extension
Each will have advantages and disadvantages.
Conclusion
There are a lot of possible projecs to improve the train services in the Clapham area.
What TfL have in their traffic database will decide the pattern of trains the area.
The Anonymous Widower 