Alec 1SJ wrote:

Don't get me wrong: I don't want thameslink to come through Crystal
Palace or Gipsy Hill

The last time I was on a Thameslink train, I boarded at East Croydon.
passed through CP & GH, then Tulse Hill, en route to Elephant & Castle,
where SWMBO boarded, and we got off at Luton. It seemed all to be done
in slow motion.
--
http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p9633096.html
(55 002 at London Kings Cross, Sep 1979)