Full Thameslink service to be restored on Woolwich line from December?
Thameslink’s introduction on the route from Luton to Rainham via Greenwich and Woolwich was a bit of a disaster back in May.
Thameslink took over two of six services per hour previously operated by Southeastern.
Insufficient drivers were able to maintain the service all day, and service levels were promptly cut back to one train an hour off-peak.
But now, six months on, and the December timetable on journey planners show two trains per hour all day in each direction.
No more 20 minute timetable gaps at very busy stations. And poor old Higham gets more than one train an hour.
But let’s not get too carried away. GoVia said similar before May despite drivers contacting me months in advance to say it would never work. And they were one hundred per cent correct.
Still, surely another six months means that obstacle has gone?
They also said that 2tph would be restored by September and that’s come and gone, I don’t trust Thameslink to deliver the service which was a last minute implementation in the first place, it might be all well and good for those in zone 2 wanting a quick journey to St. Pancras rather than (heavens forbid) change trains but us in Medway it’s meant Longer journey times to key interchanges, Medway is too far out for stopping or “semi stopping” services.
Only Monday to Friday though – so still not the full timetable with 2tph on weekends