Govia Thameslink Railway has announced a wide range of benefits that will come when the new timetable comes out in May 2018.
GTR is modernising the biggest rail network in the country. They are bringing in new trains and also improving stations and infrastructure.
The changes come as part of the Government-sponsored £7bn Thameslink Programme. This will deliver brand new, reliable timetables, extended routes, additional services and new trains.
A major improvement is that there will be 24 trains per hour across the centre of London at the busiest times. Resulting in a tube-like service with trains every 2-3 minutes.
The benefits include:
- Added capacity into London for 35,000-40,000 more passengers in each three-hour peak across the whole GTR network
- Class 700 Thameslink trains
- North-south cross-London connections for Cambridge and Peterborough (via Gatwick)
- New links to Gatwick Airport, Eurostar at St Pancras and interchange at Farringdon
- Cross-London Thameslink services at London Bridge
- New routes between Cambridge and Maidstone East so that, by December 2019
What did the officials say?
Charles Horton, Chief Executive Officer of GTR, said: “Passengers will see a transformation in services in May next year. When 70% of the overall capacity benefits of this exciting programme will be delivered. This includes the full implementation of the new more reliable Southern timetable, extended routes, additional services and new trains.
He added, “Overall there will be a massive increase in capacity for passengers into London. An expanded Thameslink network that will give passengers at Cambridge, Peterborough, Littlehampton, Medway Towns, East Grinstead and Horsham new services north-south across London.”
Chris Gibb, Chair of the Thameslink Programme Industry Readiness Board, said: “By phasing the introduction of the new timetable in this way, we have front-loaded the benefits for passengers and then spread further changes in such a way that they can be more reliably introduced.
He added “Passengers will still enjoy almost as many additional trains in May as previously planned. We are doing some things earlier with an early introduction of some off-peak Thameslink trains through to the East Coast Mainline in April. The early use of the London Bridge route to give performance improvements. We have also spread out the introduction of the rest of the cross-London services over three further timetable changes instead of just one. This will reliably embed new operating principles in a progressive manner, enabling a smoother introduction with reduced risk of passenger disruption from too much change at any one time.”
- Visit the Govia Thameslink Railway Website
For more information
