tim..... wrote:

AIUI both SWT and Southern don't like stopping longer distance trains at CJ
in the peaks to discourage their use for short hops.

That would be served by making them set-down/pick-up only, though, and not
advertise them as calling at CJ? At CJ with trains to Waterloo from many
platforms, there's not much to be gained by standing on the fast Woking
lines platform on the chance of picking up a train to Waterloo, when there
are the slow lines plus the Windsor lines too with advertised trains. Is it
really worth the commuter picking a packed 444 over a packed 455? Does the
455's extra stops at Vauxhall (and maybe Queenstown Road) make such a
difference?

I've seen an article in the SWT magazine that described why they don't stop
in the up direction... IIRC a call takes about 1.5 mins which eats a path.
To switch to the slow lines to call eats even more paths.

It isn't just at CJ but SWT reduce stops at Surbiton and Wimbledon as well.
I don't know if it is still true but there used to be an hour gap in the
evening peak if you wanted a train from Wimbledon to Surbiton (something
which is about every 10 minutes for most of the day).

I'm surprised this isn't covered by the Oxshott/Leatherhead trains... or are
they fast in the peaks?

Theo