South Eastern after Thameslink

[chapelwood]

The Thameslink Southern Great Northern franchise specification has confirmed that no Thameslink trains will run to South Eastern destinations via London Bridge (though there will be 2 trains per hour to Sevenoaks via Elephant & Castle, Catford, and Swanley, and 2 peak trains per hour to Maidstone East (or beyond) via Elephant & Castle and Bromley South. With the reduction in capacity at Cannon Street (because empty stock will no longer be able to run to/from Cannon Street via Metropolitan Junction and Blackfriars Reversing Siding, and the need for all trains via Greenwich, or calling at New Cross or St Johns to run to/from Cannon Street (no access to Charing Cross) there will be difficulty in arranging enough paths into Cannon Street from other destinations, only partly offset by the ability for all Charing Cross trains to call at London Bridge (at present the Up Passenger Loop has no platform at London Bridge, so effectively all trains to Charing Cross which call at London Bridge have to use platform 6. Earlier assumptions were that this loss of capacity at Cannon Street would be partly offset by running some trains to South Eastern destinations from Thameslink via London Bridge, so that passengers for City destinations could use Blackfriars or City Thameslink.
Chapelwood