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[email protected] · December 20th 15, 12:07 AM posted to uk.transport.london,cam.transport

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Sat, 19 Dec 2015 01:27:07 -0600,
wrote:

Not a promising scenario for Great Northern, something of a distant
cousin anyway, is it?

Well I rarely use TSGN services so am not directly affected. My sense
of things is that TSGN is simply too big to run well. The wider
question is Thameslink will mean a permanent tie in to South London's
services and what on earth would you do with the rump of GN services
if you were to restructure?

I share your sense of foreboding. the current staffing shambles could be an
early symptom.

I can see the residual inner suburban services going to TfL if Herts
were satisfied with their representation in terms of service levels
etc. However what do you do with the longer distance services? The
ECML already has a plethora of operators which brings its own issues.
Do you add another one alongside Thameslink, TfL, Virgin EC, Hull
Trains and whoever else gets long distance paths? It can't make
timetable planning and path allocation easy nor determining investment
needs. Remember the old idea of GN being lumped in wholly with the
East Coast inter city franchise? That didn't last long.

I don't think there are any easy answers as to what you do especially
after Thameslink services do reach the GN route in 2018.

As Roland says, the Cambridge and King's Lynn fast services will remain
separate from Thameslink of course.

--
Colin Rosenstiel