On Oct 20, 12:06*pm, D7666 wrote:
On Oct 20, 9:51 am, Roland Perry wrote:

you'd probably want to call it Thameslink 2015*.
(* unless you're in the camp who thinks the second phase won't happen,
which I've been pondering joining)
Thameslink 2015 it is, then *I won't believe it's finished until I
can get a through train from Cambridge to Gatwick - one of the original

I am now of the opinion you won't.

Even though they completed the tunnelling into SPILL I have alwys been
sceptical about connecting up GN to it.

They are going to all this trouble of re-arranging appoaches to
Blackfriars and south/east thereof to avoid as far as possible
conflicting moves to make 24 TPH in the core work, and then build a
new junction across which every move will conflict right *in* the
core ?!?!?!?

IMHO as a practical connection the GN was lost when the re-jigged
SPILL from being a 4 platform station under KX/SP of pre-Eusostar days
to 2-platforms under-SPILL box. With 4 platforms you could dovetail /
hold / alternate / regulate around junction, with 2 platforms you
cannot.

Amusingly, I read in My Onward Serial that DfT are sending those
responsible for Thameslink rolling stock procurement to Chatelet-Les
Halles in the rush hour to see how it's done-a station with IIRC 6
tracks and 3 island platforms where they can do exactly that.

Wasn't there some speculation on here around the time of SPILL opening
that the platforms were wide enough to be made into islands if
necessary? Obviously at much greater expense than building the thing
properly in the first place.