On 11 Apr, 18:50, Tom Anderson wrote:

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008, Andy wrote:

On Apr 11, 3:58 pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

Mwmbwls wrote:

With the transfer of the Thameslink Sutton Loop services to other
south eastern destinations - and their termination at Blackfriars will
these service continue to be part of the Thameslink franchise or would
they be better integrated into a southern franchise or even possibly
LOROL. Would a connection to the ELL be of advantage?

I agree that the Wimbledon loop services wouldn't need to be part of
Thameslink, (as I suggested when I raised the Wimbledons being
curtailed a week ago) but I can't see an obvious way of connecting them
to the ELL. Is there a practical route - and would the ELL have enough
capacity anyway amongst the 16 tph it will already have?

I'd imagine that the potential route would be from Tulse Hill - Peckham
Rye (rather than to Herne Hill and Blackfriars), joining ELL phase 2 at
Peckham Rye. This would avoid the flat crossing of the South Eastern
mainline at Herne Hill, but at the cost of the Blackfriars to Tulse Hill
route.

It would also avoid taking people into central London. This makes it a bit
of a non-starter. Yes, you could get to the City via Shoreditch High
Street, but this is hardly a good alternative to going via Blackfriars.
For any other destination west of Whitechapel, it's a disaster.



It would take people to the Docklands though - not, of course, that
the present set-up really helps people to do that (apart from the peak-
only Sutton loop trains to/from London Bridge for interchange with the
Jubilee, where the current set-up does... er... help people do that).
But I do quite agree with your point.

Anyway I'd suggest the whole idea is not really a go-er anyway, given
the limited capacity for expansion on the ELL core route and also on
the lines between Peckham Rye and where the ELL connection will
diverge north of Queens Road Peckham.

Anyway if the core Thameslink route actually does fulfil its promise
of operating akin to a tube line with a reliable high-frequency
service then getting booted out at Blackfriars should be a bit less of
an issue.