Finsbury park to London bridge and Gatwick direct from monday

missingchickenland

Ok just 3 off peak trains there and three back as a "taster" more from may 20th. https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/tlpreview

Arkady

Wish I could book the day off.

-noodles-

i’m excited! we visit brighton regularly, can’t wait to try this.

tricksy

Wunderbar. Dont you love living in SG?

Arkady

Riders on the first train got a free cupcake too.

duffer

But but but .... its *faster* if you change trains. So whilst better for those for whom mobility/kids are an issue, it doesn’t necessarily make sense for many others.

HolbornFox

At least Southern aren't running the service.

Arkady

Faster to go where?

Arkady

I went today. It was exciting. Blackfriars in less than 20 minutes from FP, London Bridge in under 30. Was tempting to get the train back from London Bridge in order to do it again, but instead I had to go to work.

There were lots of corpulent men with notebooks on the train. It was like looking at my future.

krappyrubsnif

St Pancras to Blackfriars working OK today? Is there now a direct train FP to Blackfriars?????

tricksy

Arkady: I'm shocked you didnt go to Brighton & back before wk

Arkady

krappy - yes Thameslink was working fine today, and yes the new Finsbury Park-Horsham via st Pancras, etc service is being trialled - details in the first post. Full service from May.

Arkady

'Brighton and back before work' sounds like a euphemism.

krappyrubsnif

Timrtable? Is it up on the Trainline etc?

krappyrubsnif

Oh. https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/tlpreview

Arkady

Well done.x

Sutent

@Arkady am very jealous. Did you get your free cupcake? I had to go to a meeting in your old back yard in the Midlands. I did get to ride a diesel Chiltern train this morning which was very enjoyable.

HolbornFox

When i was in The Hague they had a full choir on the new trams, fantastic.

Arkady

Sadly no cupcake for me. I did scoff a pan au chocolat though.

krappyrubsnif

Eurostar Terminal in 8 minutes, Blackfriars, Tate Modern and Globe direct in 20. (Staff advise you to get off and change at St Pancras if you want a faster train to Gatwick from the same platform).

Am I the only person on the train without a notebook, camera and thermos? Apparently, the composer Anton Dvorak was a train spotter. This is one of my favourite useless facts.

Scruffy

"Useless facts" @krappyrubsnif ? If a fact is even merely interesting, then it is useful. That is to say, even if it's just worth mentioning, that gives it conversational currency. Wagner seems to have maliciously made up a story that Dvořák sent his mentor and chum, Brahms, a bow and arrow which he then used to shoot cats with—Useless or interesting? Surely not both? Eric Gill climbed a ladder up the front of Broadcasting House in public, armed with mallet and chisel, to shorten the penis of his sculpture depicting Ariel, because it was criticised as being too big. So there you are: three extremely useful non-sequiturs to use in the pub or at table when anyone mentions Kate Middleton (whatever the latest knobess' name is—I really do forget) or the Oscars.

Indeed, it's well-documented that Dvořák was a locomotive enthusiast in an era before there were parkas, Thermos flasks, and Bic biros. He was also a pigeon fancier. I can't help feeling that—whatever his relative enthusiasms were for those pursuits (and they seem near-obsessive)—his talent for composition is rightly his claim to fame.

Arkady

That's one of the best posts here in a good while. More of this sort of thing.

krappyrubsnif

Scruffy, didn't mean to rattle your cage!

Scruffy

No, no, no! Not rattled at all, @krappyrubsnif . Rather enjoying the opening you provided for a bit of persiflage, even though it was a tad off-piste. Perhaps we should have a "new discussion" where members can contribute factual ephemera... ah, but wait, this site is supposed to be about Stroud Green. Perhaps, for my want of "factual" SG ephemera, I'll have to make up a malicious story about composer York Bowen (born in Crouch Hill) forging spurious delivery notes to the milkman and leaving them in his neighbours' empties.

krappyrubsnif

All in favour of off-piste persiflage. Historically the finest threads on this site have started with for example the W7 bus, and ended up with Samoan fertility rituals or the best makes of underarm deodeorant. There is expertise in SG on everything & we should all be lifelong learners.

vetski

There are no useless facts. There are only potential pub-quiz-winning answers!

krappyrubsnif

Another first. And trains every 2 to 3 minutes.....

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/mar/26/first-self-driving-train-london-thameslink-rail

slats

is there a timetable for when the full service begins anywhere? Struggling to find one.

sg_mike

They’re here...

https://www.railplan2020.com/timetables

Hopefully I’ve formatted that right?

Arkady

Aside from the implementation carnage, can someone explain to me what the ultimate number of trains going through the Thameslink core from Finsbury park will be? I think it's due to be three an hour from yesterday (mass cancellations aside), but isn't it ultimately supposed to be eight an hour?

Arkady

Oh wait, found the Finsbury Park info here. I'm still struggling to figure out what the final trains-per-hour will be from December 2019 though.

"New expanded Thameslink network will include direct train services to
Central London, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport and Brighton offering
increased capacity, multiple interchange opportunities with improved
connectivity including interchange at Farringdon for Crossrail. Services
to Cambridge will be doubled. Following the announcement in late 2017
that the Thameslink programme will be phased in there are changes to
the previously announced Thameslink services from this station. From
May 2018 there will be 1 tph rather than 2tph to/from Cambridge and
Brighton. The Maidstone to Cambridge service will operate to/from
Cambridge and Kings Cross with 2 tph. The Welwyn Garden City to
Sevenoaks service will operate as Welwyn Garden City to Kings Cross
(2tph) and Blackfriars to Sevenoaks (2tph). From May 2019 the Welwyn
Garden City to Sevenoaks service runs through the core with 2 tph.
From Dec 2019 the Cambridge to Maidstone service is introduced with 2
tph.
More frequent Great Northern Metro services throughout the day
offering increased capacity and new state of the art trains from 2018.
From Dec 2018 Trains between Moorgate and Stevenage will be
replaced by buses between Watton-at-Stone and Stevenage (Monday to
Saturday) until at least 2021 in both directions until new infrastructure
is completed at Stevenage."