Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the parent company of Southern and Thameslink, are moving onto the third stage of their timetable consultation, focusing on weekend and late night services.
In a statement, GTR said: "The third phase of our timetable consultation starts today, focusing on weekend and late night services.
"The proposed changes are a key part of modernising the rail network in the south east with new trains and a new timetable, linking to the £7 billion Thameslink programme which is nearly complete. This major rewrite of the timetable will provide new journey opportunities, better intervals between trains, improved reliability and more capacity responding to the growth in passengers which has doubled in just 12 years on some parts of our network.
"Highlights include:
- Saturday timetable proposals:
- - broadly the same as the off peak weekday timetable
- - more services, especially for the Saturday evening timetable
- - doubling Thameslink services for Bickley, Bromley South, Shortlands, Ravensbourne, Beckenham Hill, Bellingham, Catford, Crofton Park, Nunhead, Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill stations to 4 trains per hour
- - doubling Southern services for Reigate to 2 per hour, and new evening services after 1900
- - doubling Great Northern services for Welwyn Garden City and Hertford North route to 4 per hour
- - additional semi fast Thameslink services for Radlett, Elstree & Borehamwood and Mill Hill Broadway from 4 trains per hour to 6
- Sunday timetable proposals:
- - additional early service from Uckfield to Oxted
- - new Southern Sunday service for Belmont, Banstead and Epsom Downs every 30 minutes (no Sunday service currently)
- - new Southern Sunday service for Reigate every hour (no Southern service currently)
- - doubling Thameslink services for Radlett, Elstree & Borehamwood and Mill Hill Broadway to 4 trains per hour
- - London Victoria to East Grinstead services half-hourly in the evening (currently hourly)
- - Southern trains between London Victoria and Portsmouth Harbour to operate via Horsham to match the weekday and Saturday route
- Late night proposals:
- - since May 2017, overnight services from London Victoria on Sunday to Thursday nights have been removed to provide Network Rail with additional access. This consultation proposes making most of those changes permanent, although the late trains from London Victoria to Gatwick Airport via Redhill (the former 0014) and London Victoria to East Croydon (the former 0016) would be reinstated from May 2018
- - to provide alternative journey opportunities it is proposed that a half-hourly Thameslink service between Bedford and Three Bridges (currently hourly) will be introduced
- Early Sunday morning Thameslink services:
- - to provide Network Rail with credible access to maintain the tracks through central London, cross-London routes will be operated in two parts with services from the north terminating at St Pancras International and those from the south terminating at London Bridge until approximately 0930 on a Sunday morning
"Our timetable consultation with passengers and stakeholders has been very positive thus far - phase 1 provided an outline of the plans, while phase 2 covered the detail of the Monday to Friday daytime timetable. Phase 2 generated over 10,000 responses and we are reviewing where we can make amendments in response to these. We are very grateful to those who have taken such an interest and are helping to shape the new timetable. Confirmation of the Monday to Friday daytime timetable will be available in the new year.
"For phase 3, as with our earlier consultations, we will direct passengers to our dedicated website www.transformingrail.com. At this link you’ll be able to view full timetables, as well as search for specific times on a journey planner.
"We will promote this website through posters and announcements at stations, by announcements on trains, as an email to our customer database, through media outlets, via our website and on twitter. The consultation closes on Wednesday 20 December at 1200.
"If you have any queries about the timetables please get in touch with the consultation team direct at [email protected].
"Further details of the overall introduction plans can be viewed here - https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/govia-thameslink-railway/pressreleases/wide-range-of-benefits-revealed-for-may-2018-south-east-timetable-2285889"
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