On 17 Nov, 07:03, D7666 wrote:

On Nov 16, 6:34 pm, wrote:

Will the Kentish Town platforms remain limited to 8 car under the full
Thameslink improvements - I see there is a fair amount of lengthening now
happening at stations northwards to Elstree...

Don't know - the site is very space constrained so platform extensions
could be difficult. Again according to Quail, 2 and 3 are 10 cars long
anyway, so SDO may be sufficient. Don't know if that would be
acceptable for 1, which is 8 car.

Kentish Town will remain 8 car platforms under the full and final
scheme.

There are no plans to convert to it to 12 car platforms. The bridges
and structures at either end of the station are too substantial to
alter. This was known in some internal documents - but has since been
confirmed, and placed in the FAQ of the thameslink program web site
after I prompted them to do so:

http://www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk...es/public_inde...

It does prove they are listening to public questions ... and producing
an answer - even though it may not be the answer that everyone wants.


From that answer...

quote
Brighton to Bedford [not 'Thameslink route'] trains rarely call at
Kentish Town and Cricklewood other than in the late evening or early
morning. Instead they are served by the Wimbledon loop trains that
will remain a maximum eight carriages in length due to the road bridge
at Tulse Hill and complex track layouts near other station platforms.
/quote

I don't understand what the 'not Thameslink route' bit in square
brackets is supposed to mean?

In a more detailed response to myself I asked about possible SDO
because my thoughts were if Kentish Town is limited permanently to
8car how much impact will that have overall i.e. will there still be 4
TPH 8car trains in the long term. They replied that SDO is not ruled
out ... but no decision has been made on this yet ... and IMHO does
not need to be made for some time.


As we know the plan is for the (principal) suburban Thameslink service
south of the Thames to switch from being the Wimbledon loop service to
being an Orpington or Sevenoaks service via the Catford loop (i.e.
Peckham Rye). So, how easy would it be to sort this route out for 12
car trains?

If they are to remain 8 car services then that means there will be a
mix of 8 and 12 car trains going through the central section, which I
suppose is perhaps less than ideal. Then again it would be wasteful
providing 12 car trains on a service to Sevenoaks/ Orpington which
doesn't need it.

Given that Kentish Town and Cricklewood are only normally served by 8
car Wimbledon loop (to be Sevenoaks/ Orpington) services, I don't
understand why there is a specific interest in whether they are
getting platform extensions that they would appear not to need?.