More frequent trains from May, but the complete new service will be delayed until December 2019

Written by: Basil Clarke | Published: 04 April 2018

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great northen logo Govia Thameslink Railway has published a report on the third phase of its Monday-to-Friday fugture timetables consultation, along with complete Monday-to-Friday timetables. The first improvements to service frequency will be introduced on Sunday 20th May, but it appears that we will now have to wait until December 2019 before frequencies reach those promised in the consultations:

"The timetables we consulted on are the “end position” – originally this was December 2018 but due to the phasing, announced in late 2017, the final timetable will be introduced by December 2019."

The new timetables come with a caveat: they are only "intended as a guide and we may need to make changes".

Four trains an hour off peak

From May the off peak daytime and evening service to and from Palmers Green will be increased to four trains an hour, at 15 minute intervals. Two of of these will be all stations Moorgate to Hertford North, the other two will be Moorgate to Watton at Stone, missing out Crews Hill and Bayford - thus those two stations will actually see a decrease in offpeak trains. One train an hour will run as far as Stevenage until December, when it will be replaced by a bus service from Watton at Stone.

New connections at Finsbury Park

From May it will be possible to change at Finsbury Park onto Thameslink services serving St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars and London Bridge. If the National Rail journey planner is to be believed, these trains will run from Platform 2 at Finsbury Park, while Moorgate trains will call at Platform 1 - therefore, changing trains will be very easy. However, the service will not be particularly frequent - two to three trains an hour. There will be easy connections (same platform) at St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thamelink and Blackfriars) to Thameslink services to various south London destinations and to Gatwick Airport and the South Coast.

Grange Park services

A controversial issue during the consultations has been the proposed frequency of trains serving Grange Park. The consultation report includes the following:

"You said: Campaign to increase services at Grange Park

"We're doing: Unfortunately this is not possible at this stage. The current level of service will be maintained during the peak. Off peak there will be an increase from 3 tph to 4 tph."

New trains

class 717 train We'll have to put up with the current very scruffy trains for some months yet.

"The new 717 trains will provide a metro-style layout with more capacity, improved reliability, air conditioning and passenger information systems that can be remotely updated to provide real-time travel information. These trains will be introduced towards the end of 2018 and by May 2019 will provide much needed capacity on the route."

Word is that the new trains are likely to have rather hard, longitudinal seats, but in other ways they will clearly be a big improvement. And they will certainly be much smarter externally. (I really don't think it's good enough for Govia not to have repainted the trains that they inherited from First Capital Connect. Just compare them with the smartly refurbished trains dating from the same time that London Overground run between Liverpool Street and Cheshunt/Chingford.)

What's next?

The newly publshed timetables carry a prominent warning on every page: "Major changes during this timetable, check before you travel". So they may not be an entirely reliable guide to what will actually happen. As anyone using Palmers Green station will be only too aware, there are still frequent cancellations - mainly at weekends - due to a shortage of drivers and in spite of GTR's claim to be running the largest ever driver training programme. So four trains an hour off peak might turn out to be overambitious at this stage - let's hope not.

GTR are promising to publish an "update on the feedback on the weekend consultation" in June. In early September they will be reviewing the May 2018 timetable and updating on "any changes required", and at the end of September they promise to have the new December 2018 timetable included in National Rail Enquiries journey planners.

A couple of months ago GTR were promising us four trains an hour on Saturdays from May. There's no sign of that in the Journey Planner as yet, so we'll have to wait and see...

Links

Timetables page on Rail Plan 2020 website - with links to the Consultation Report, Route Info Sheets and Monday-to-Friday timetables

Rail services

Posts in discussion: More frequent trains from May, but the complete new service will be delayed until December 2019

N Morris posted a reply

#3762

05 Apr 2018 10:35

Thanks for the info update. I've done a quick comparison of the current v proposed Monday - Friday departures from PG to central London between 7am - 9am and there has been no improvement to frequency as yet. There are still only 12 trains for commuters to catch in this 2 hour window. Not quite a metro service yet! Hopefully the future timetable changes will increase frequencies further and reduce some of the long wait times between trains.

I've listed the departure times below along with the waiting time until the next train.

Karl Brown posted a reply

#3777

05 Apr 2018 17:13

Neil Morris’ analysis suggests an odd approach by the train co: ultimately double the midday service to 6 trains and hour yet keep the crammed peak morning rush hours service at 6 trains per hour. Perhaps they hope the move to all six car trains will help safely fit in the majority who are not supporting “baby on board” badges. Getting so many trains (remember plus Welwyn line) in and out again of dead-end Moorgate always struck me as some challenge.

I’m curious about the 12 month training programme to produce all the drivers for the original planned 6 trains per hour from May 18, now to be December 19. Did they ever exist; will they now drive trains elsewhere or merely drink tea in some glass case for drivers waiting for trains? Let’s see if there’s ever a “train cancelled due to lack of drivers” post May. As if.

Basil Clarke posted a reply

#3778

05 Apr 2018 22:36

The rush hour service uses all the trains currently available, they can't increase it until the new fleet arrives, which will have more trains. But the date for these new trains appears to have slipped somewhat.

As regards drivers, I've heard that some train operating companies are infamous for poaching drivers that have been trained at the expense of another company. They can afford to pay higher salaries because they haven't had to fork out for the training. It's a dog-eat-dog world in the exciting land of privatised railways.

Karl Brown posted a reply

#3779

06 Apr 2018 09:14

Thanks Basil. Good to know that the next time I miss a connection / meeting / concert / some other due to a duff service, I can be heartened in the knowledge that the market is never wrong.

James Brown posted a reply

#3822

10 May 2018 12:27

Looking at the new PG timetable, it looks like we'll be getting the same number of peak trains, but there are fewer that will miss out any stations en route to London – which means we'll be facing longer journeys on busier trains. Does this tally with other people's interpretation?

Karl Brown posted a reply

#3824

10 May 2018 16:56

I reckon the journeys will not be any longer.

There’s an excellent link on Bowes and Bounds supplied by Richard Matz on May 7 which highlights the new trains being built in Germany, all 25 of them, each with more space than the current stock, but with less of it being seated. Air con and wi fi! Just have to hope they are also building some drivers at the same time.

N Morris posted a reply

#3832

16 May 2018 14:38

I've checked the new timetable during morning hours of 7am - 9am. Journeys from Palmers Green to Finsbury Park (for the sake of argument) will take 12 - 14 minutes.
1 out of 4 trains skips Hornsey and Harringay which takes 13 minutes.
1 out of 4 trains skips Bowes Park and that journey is 12 minutes.

Currently the journey from PG to Finsbury takes between 10 - 13 minutes, with 2 trains early in the period taking 6 and 7 minutes respectively by virtue of going straight to Finsbury Park from PG.

So there is a slight extension on the journey time under the new timetable.

Here is the link to the blog Karl referred to in his earlier post paulbigland.blog/2018/05/05/coming-soon-new-trains-for-the-gn-moorgate-lines/

Note the new trains can travel at higher speed, have quicker acceleration and better braking and GTR said that will allow some minutes to shaved off the present timetable in the future.

Colin Younger posted a reply

#3833

16 May 2018 18:41

It's just be drawn to my attention that assuming I've read it correctly from 28 Oct to 2 December PG will be on the Sunday bus replacement "service" between Stevenage and Ally Pally and vice-versa. I don't recall an explanation for this. Inset days for driver training? Leaves on the line? Trees being felled?

Karl Brown posted a reply

#3848

20 May 2018 08:58

Friday evening returning from town, “train cancelled due to lack of drivers”; Saturday evening returning from town, “train cancelled due to lack of drivers”; and looking at the situation today in planning a town trip it’s a complete nightmare – “reduced service due to a shortage of train crew”. Here, on the threshold of the new timetable with apparently even more trains, the present shambles continues. Who will be driving them all?

As with so many iterations of the East Coast main line, it seems you bid unrealistically high to win the franchise and then rip costs out, to passenger detriment, in a vain attempt to square the position. I can’t help but think that a train (transport) service focused on viable travelling for all, rather than one focused on profit for a few is what is needed. TfL can't take over this line fast enough for me.

Darren Edgar posted a reply

#3849

21 May 2018 09:21

Shambles today, first commute day of the new timetable and, despite telling customers to prep for this for months, GNR werre clearly totally unprepared. First train 33 minutes delayed, next 2 cancelled.

Thankfully I noticed before leaving home so went the long way round via the tube.

Not drivers is always the worst excuse. Grossly overpaid and on extremely cushty hours - no excuses for not having a packed rosta.

Basil Clarke posted a reply

#3888

30 May 2018 19:28

Before writing this comment, I thought I'd better check how the trains are doing today. Well, would you know it? Disruption between Finsbury Park and Moorgate, trains being diverted into Kings Cross, all trains through PG running late.

We're now a week and a half into RailPlan2020. I haven't been checking often enough to see how our trains are affected and I have taken advantage of the extra evening trains, so I can't complain personally. But where things have gone seriously awry are the new Thameslink services that should be running via St Pancras International, from Peterborough or Cambridge in the north to Brighton or Horsham in the south, with a stop at Finsbury Park which should in theory provide convenient cross-platform interchange for passengers to or from Palmers Green. Well, almost all of those services have been cancelled.

As always, the most comprehensive source of information about what's happening (or not happening) is London Reconnections. Check out these recent articles:

The Cicadas Take Flight: Explaining The May Timetable Changes

The Politics of Thameslink’s Troubles

Thameslink The Musical Act 4, Scene 3: The Grayling Letter

Finally, some possible good news. According to railstaff.uk, the transport secretary recently said in parliament that some Great Northern services might be transferred to Transport for London/London Overground. If that's true, he must have been referring to the Moorgate services. And if it happens, we're likely to have our stations improved beyond recognition (they might even do some cleaning on the Great Northern side of the stations that it shares with the Victoria Line - or am I being ridiculously optimistic?)

See Some Great Northern services could be transferred to London Overground

Roger Blows posted a reply

#3895

01 Jun 2018 17:34

Before Platform 4 at Highbury &Islington station (Northbound to Palmers Green etc) is wholly engulfed in black dirt, our friendly rail service provider has removed the route plans (themselves barely legible under the grime) in recent weeks. It looks as if in all respects Great Northern is going nowhere. When I asked GN about cleaning the place up (making the point that if the black dirt had attached itself to the route plans and posters, it must also spread itself over potential passengers waiting for a train to turn up) initially the reply was that keeping the platform clean was TfL’s responsibility. TfL in turn made clear that Platform 4 was managed/mismanaged by GN. Of course, the grime is created by GN services, when running. Trivial though this may be within the larger picture of Govia’s woeful conduct of its franchise, it seems emblematic of its failures.

Karl Brown posted a reply

#3898

02 Jun 2018 12:30

Stuck outside Finsbury Park for over 10 minutes, “waiting for a platform”, that coming later in my day after a previous train, apparently on its way, instead hit the local Bermuda Triangle for GN rolling stock. The argument for rail privatisation, as I recall it, was never that we should move towards 57 million separate UK ticket prices (who can believe that’s where we’ve reached) but that competition would shake things about to passenger benefit. I don’t see a lot of competition on our line and, given the constraints of Moorgate station, very much doubt that will ever happen. With 18 years to plan, more than spent rearming and prosecuting the Second World War, the new timetable is clearly a total disaster. Just look at the wider UK picture before this latest shambles: fares up by 45% in real terms since privatisation; punctuality reaching a ten year low; while overcrowding up by a third since 2011. With things clearly going further downhill, fast, means something – someone – has to give; surely time for the Secretary of State to walk, a single control for national rail to be run for passengers and not profit and the Hertford line to move into the arms of the integrated TfL London transport network.

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See also...

Palmers Green station: how step-free access will be provided

Palmers Green station: Lifts installed by mid-2024?

Government rejects London Assembly call for devolution of suburban rail services

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