We knew there was going to be teething issues in the first few weeks, but last week was terrible for regular commuters in our area:
- Over crowded trains they weren’t able to board (both in the morning and evening peak). Including running only 8 car trains through London Bridge at 17:21 and 17:51 which were already full by the time they got to London Bridge.
- Trains terminating at East Croydon and being emptied of passengers as the driver hadn’t been trained on the route.
Not to mention plenty of late trains and drivers and onboard supervisors advising that the train is held at a red signal as the line ahead is congested.
The Peak evening Thameslink service (looking at trains between 16:30 and 19:01) ran with a 30% cancellation rate!
If you add to this the number of trains later than 15 mins (which are eligible for Delay Repay) the number of disrupted trains climbs to 57%.
Complete collapse of service on Saturday
There’s so much more we could say about the first week, but we need to turn our attention to Saturday, and the complete collapse of Thameslink south of London with no communication from Thameslink to passengers what so ever.
At time of publishing 100% of Thameslink trains that would call in the Redhill area have been cancelled.
- Horley, Salfords, Earlswood have had no trains to London.
- Redhill has diverted South Eastern services running though to Charing Cross.
- Reigate, Redhill, Merstham have a short Victoria service (4 coaches only).
- The Horsham to London Bridge service is running only between Horsham and Redhill it appears.
And according to the Association of British Commuters on twitter it was known it was going to happen. As railway workers were advised as early as 13:01 on Friday afternoon.
Passengers should be advised there will be mass cancellations this morning. This message was sent out yesterday to all TOC staff who may have to travel on #Thameslink. We demand that passengers are given the same courtesy of honest and regular updates @TLRailUK #RailPlan2020 pic.twitter.com/bfFRQy4mH4
— Association of British Commuters (@ABCommuters) May 26, 2018
This is completely unacceptable. The weekday commute is not the only use of the railway. Many people also work on the weekends, or at the Weekends travel for leisure, and everyone with an annual season ticket is entitled to.
As a rail users association we’ve asked Thameslink what has happened and why there has been no communication to customers. We have yet to see a response.
Over on twitter (at time of publication) there is no information as to why this is the case. When asked they replied with:
“Hi, these are unfortunately cancelled with the short term timetable amendments. My apologies for this. I’d recommend a difference[sic] route (i.e. Metrobus to Gatwick)”
The complete lack of communication is completely unacceptable!
Note – Information on train running and punctuality checked on http://recenttraintimes.co.uk
I went to a concert in Kentish town on Thursday night. Got to the station at 11pm to find five cancelled trains. Waited 40 minutes to board a train which was absolutely packed and got into St.Albans at 12.20. this cannot be right, not a word of apology and then had to commute back in to London for work 7 Hours later. Having been a long term sufferer on the Thameslink line for the past 30 years, this is the worst it has ever been.
I have had the same experience today Saturday 26th of may i live in higham kent were thameslink have taken over the running of the train service from southeastern. this morning and this afternoon there was hardly any thameslink service’s coming in or out of the medway towns going towards london and vice versa no information as to why no service absolute disgrace and i can not see it getting any better for a very long time not even by june the 10 th like they said it would it looks like they dont have enough staff to run these services ie drivers who no the route .
Every morning I turned up at Blackfriars for the 4am to Brighton only to find the first train was 5-30 It took me 4 hours each day to get home at Littlehampton
Why have the 4-00. 4-30 & 5-00 train’s been cancelled.
London Bridge 11.15 Saturday night .one lone member of staff desperately punch enquiries into his phone app and getting the same nonsense we were. Pointless. No trains running North/South on Thameslink. Found a very helpful man in ticket office pointed me towards the only east croydon train running at 11.40.
No information from Thameslink.
As far as i could see only 2 staff in entire station.
I expect a lot of people got stuck in town last night.
This week i have only had one journey out of seven from London that has been any where near on time
The whole railway system is going to hell in a hand cart. Trains in the North of England are barely giving a service!
I am not surprised in the slightest that Thameslink have failed to run their new timetable. Take Tuesday (29th) for example, 6 out of the eight Thameslink trains due to arrive at Redhill between 16:00 – 18:00 from London were cancelled!!! How can anyone rely on their service?