"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 16:34:43 on Sat, 7 May
2016, D A Stocks remarked:

There is still quite a lot of work to be completed at London Bridge and
Bermondsey before the new services can run because there isn't capacity
south of the river to run a full service north of the river - the trains
need somewhere to come from and go to. AIUI this work is proceeding to
schedule but won't be complete until 2018.

http://www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk...ervice-changes

Is it still "early 2016" (perhaps May 15th is, officially)?

"The first new trains start to run on the Thameslink route from
early 2016."

There are a fair number of trains sitting in the sidings at Three
Bridges, and they sometimes venture out on to the main line.

In passenger service?

I doubt it. I think part of the problem is that there is nothing in common
between the existing and new fleets in terms of maintenance and depot
locations, so doing a 'new train for old' substition might not be as trivial
an exercise as one would wish. The current timetable has a Three Bridges to
Bedford stopping service so this might provide an opportunity. There may
also be an argument for waiting until the route is available so that they
can test and commission ATO through the core before putting the trains into
service.

--
DAS