Thameslink Consultation Response Template

Hi all.  Following lengthy discussions here and elsewhere, and a meeting with Cllr Alexander and RicP, I have finalised a template that people can use to submit their response to the consultation.

The consultation response has to be in by 23 August.  I am pasting the template below.  Best to post all of it, as the consultation asks for justification as well as demands.

I recommend that people copy and paste it into their consultation response (email to thameslink@dft.gsi.gov.uk) - with any amendments or additions they feel appropriate - and do so soon.  A letter from local councillors will be distributed to residents shortly, pointing to this template.  There will also be leaflets handed out at the relevant stations.

More medium-term work will be done to establish a Hornsey & Harringay User Group (or possibly something slightly broader, such as a Great Northern Railway User Group).

Here you go:

START

As a concerned user of Harringay & Hornsey Rail (‘H&H’) rail stations, I would like the following to be taken into consideration when deciding on future Thameslink and Great Northern services:

Threats to current service levels

Two separate changes to the railway are underway which will affect services to Harringay & Hornsey stations: The Thameslink Programme and the segregation of Hertford Loop services.  It is essential that any changes to service patterns maintain, at a minimum, the current level of service to H&H.  Ideally, H&H should benefit from the increased services made possible by these changes.

H&H currently receive six-eight trains per hour at peak times.  These trains run between London Moorgate and Alexandra Palace, after which the service is divided between trains towards Welwyn Garden City (‘The Welwyn route’) and trains towards Hertford North or Stevenage (‘The Hertford Loop’).  In the evenings and at weekends the trains are diverted to London King’s Cross.

Because the Welwyn service and the Hertford Loop currently share track between Alexandra Palace (AP) and Finsbury Park (FP), it is not possible to increase the service beyond six trains per hour.  To remedy this, work is currently under way to bring a freight-only track into passenger service for the Hertford Loop between those two stations, allowing full segregation of the two services in future.  This will allow six trains per hour on the Hertford Loop (up to ten at peak times) and six trains per hour on the Welwyn Service.  Stations between Alexandra Palace and Finsbury Park could, therefore, be serviced by over twice the current number of trains. 

According to the 2011 Jacobs Consultancy report for the DfT, service patterns post-2018 are likely to be as follows:

Welwyn service:

2tph Welwyn Garden City - Moorgate 3/6 car 313

2tph Welwyn Garden City - Caterham 8 car 700

2tph Welwyn Garden City - Maidstone East 8 car 700

Hertford Loop:

2tph Letchworth - Moorgate via Hertford North 3/6 car 313

2tph Hertford North - Moorgate 3/6 car 313

2tph Gordon Hill - Moorgate 3/6 313

However, the track currently being converted for the Hertford Loop does not have platforms at any station between Alexandra Palace and Finsbury Park.  Platforms are currently being installed at FP and AP, but they are not being installed at the intermediate stations, Hornsey and Harringay.  Any reference to new platforms at H&H appears to have disappeared from recent official documentation.  Post-segregation, then, H&H may be reliant on the six-trains per hour on the Welwyn service.  While this would not be a reduction in trains-per-hour it would be a reduction in available services, as users of H&H would need to change at Alexandra Palace if they wished to use the Hertford Loop Service.  Post-Thameslink it would also often be necessary to change at Finsbury Park to get to Moorgate, as four of the six Welwyn trains are expected to be diverted to St Pancras.

A further issue is that the four Welwyn trains per hour from Thameslink will likely be eight-cars long.  The platforms at H&H can currently only cater for six-car trains, and there appear to be no plans to lengthen them (as has happened at Finsbury Park).  If these trains are to stop at H&H they will require Selective Door Opening (SDO).  While the new Siemens Desiro trains commissioned for Thameslink are capable of this, SDO is regarded as bad practice.  Nor has any guarantee been given that these trains will stop at H&H.  Without this guarantees, or a guarantee of new platforms on the Hertford Loop, H&H could be reliant on the remaining two trains per hour running between Welwyn and Moorgate; rather than increasing services, services could be a reduced to a third of their current level.

Future services

Whichever franchise takes over responsibility for the Welwyn and Hertford Loop services should give a guarantee that service levels at Hornsey and Harringay will not be reduced.  Ideally, any future franchise should be required to ensure that H&H receives the full benefit of the increased service levels made available by segregation and Thameslink.  Together, the new franchise and the DfT should do one or more of the following:

A1) Guarantee that the four Thameslink trains per hour will stop at H&H

A2) Extend the Welwyn Thameslink platforms at H&H to eight-car so that SDO can be avoided

B) Build new platform faces at H&H on the new Hertford Loop line to enable access to the six+ trains per hour running on this line.

Currently, many potential passengers are dissuaded from using Harringay and Hornsey stations due to overcrowding.  The potential doubling of trains per hour brought about by implementing options A & B would remedy this, inevitably easing road congestion by car & bus users.

Ensuring that users of H&H maintain access to both Welwyn and Hertford services would also have a knock-on benefit of relieving Finsbury Park station - the busiest station outside of Zone 1 - as passengers would not need to change trains there.

Any future franchise should also create an evening and weekend service to Moorgate.  As well as giving passengers additional options, this would relieve Finsbury Park station by allowing passengers to take advantage of the cross-platform change to the Victoria Line at Highbury and Islington.  It would also be an economic spur to areas around Drayton Park and Essex Road stations, which are currently closed in the evenings and at weekends.

Station facilities

Hornsey and Harringay stations are currently in a poor state or repair, with gloomy platforms, no cycle-parking facilities, no gate-lines or permanent staffing.  Harringay is in a particularly poor state, having had its original building replaced by a 'temporary' wooden shack following a fire in the 1960s.  It is a government requirement that all stations should have disabled access, e.g. lifts, by 2020.  Any future franchise should guarantee to substantially upgrade facilities to London Overground-standard.  Ideally the stations should be rebuilt to facilitate cross-platform transfers.

The future franchise

Of the lessons learned during First Capital Connect’s current tenure over the Great Northern routes, perhaps the clearest is this: An inter-city rail franchise will not prioritise local services or stations only served by local services.  Stations like Harringay and Hornsey will inevitably be neglected in favour of larger stations such as Cambridge.  It is not, therefore, appropriate for the non-Thameslink Welwyn and Hertford Loop services to remain part of a wider Thameslink franchise.  Nor is it appropriate for it to be transferred to another, ‘Greater East Anglia' inter-city franchise.

The Hertford Loop and remaining Moorgate-Welwyn service is an excellent contender for adoption by TFL and London Overground.  London Overground's commitment to local high-frequency stopping services, clean, upgraded and well maintained stations, ticket gate-lines, permanent-staffing during opening hours, etc. are precisely what is required.  As demonstrated by the Overground elsewhere this would maximise the potential of these services.  Merely appearing on the standard tube map would likely lead to increased usage, relieving the overcrowded Victoria Line.

If the Welwyn & Hertford Loop services cannot immediately be adopted by London Overground they should be given their own, local franchise tasked with adopting LO standards and preparing for a future transition to TFL control.

Summary

Services:

·         Absolute guarantees should be given that trains-per-hour will not be reduced at Harringay or Hornsey

·         Customers at Harringay & Hornsey should have access to Thameslink and Hertford Loop services.

·         The maximum number of local services should stop at Harringay and Hornsey to remedy suppressed demand on the current overcrowded trains.

·         There should be an evening & weekend service to Moorgate to give customers direct access to Drayton Park, Islington and Shoreditch, and cross-platform interchange with the Victoria Line at Highbury & Islington.

Stations:

·         Thameslink platforms should be extended to eight-cars.  New platforms should be built on the new Hertford Loop track.

·         Stations should be fully accessible, with lifts, barriers, cycle-parking facilities, and should be staffed during opening hours.

·         Consideration should be given to rebuilding the stations to facilitate cross-platform interchanges.

The Franchise:

·         It is not appropriate for the inner-London slow-stopping services from Moorgate to Welwyn/Hertford to be part of an intercity franchise.  They should become part of London Overground, or a transitional local franchise.

END