On Dec 22, 8:13*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:43:04 -0800 (PST), D7666
wrote:

Today, this morning, 48 h after ''problems'' started, 84 h after the
last snow fell in this area, and 36 h after the alleged emergency
service was put in place, I actually found this emergency service in
place and working and corresponding to what they were advertising in
their web updates.

[snip]

And I am still unable to find out exactly what the north of Thames
issue is.

I could guess NR want plain line running i.e. no use of points so no
turnbacks at Luton or St.Albans nor FL/SL switching, but that don't
explain why just 4 TPH nor the stopping pattern they are using.

Or maybe the is an OLE speed limit, but that again don't imply the 4
TPH pattern.

You have to worry what on earth will happen to the Thameslink service
when it is finally upgraded and linked to the GN and a much wider set of
destinations. The current set up seems incapable of surviving any real
level of disruption either from the weather or from railway induced
failings (track, wires, rolling stock etc).

Reading some of the earlier posts and what apparently "failed" you have
to wonder about the combined planning and contingency skills of the
operator and Network Rail.

Given the proposed intensity of service and probably much more complex
rolling stock and lots of dips, tunnels and connections all over the
place I doubt the service would survive one snowflake falling out of sky
never mind real winter weather. *I know it's a long time until the
expanded service comes into use but I wonder if anyone is doing some
thinking and learning from recent failings so there might be something
more robust put in place in terms of the trains and infrastructure so
the service might be able to keep going in the event of serious
disruption.

When it works, Thameslink can be an amazingly useful service - I
should add that I'm looking at it in particular from a London 'metro'
perspective - but when something goes wrong, it all just seems to fall
apart. My normal advice to anyone is that at times like this (i.e.
anytime things are looking shaky), Thameslink is best avoided if
possible (particularly south of St Pancras - but as D7666/Nick says,
they can balls it up north of St P too).

I hope that things improve - I dunno if there's an attitude that the
Thameslink Programme works are somehow going to wave a magic wand and
make the TL route 'just work' after completion, but if so that'd be
just a little hopeful.