Thameslink disruption: Third rail timetable published in two months

Misery: commuters have been suffering after the implementation of RailPlan2020
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Thameslink and Great Northern have released a third new train timetable in two months as the firms attempt to tackle severe disruption.

The latest change will still see some services cancelled in advance, but rail bosses hope the number of on-the-day cancellations will be reduced.

Thameslink and Great Northern routes - part of the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) franchise - have suffered major disruption since a new timetable was introduced on May 20.

An interim timetable was implemented on June 4 which saw around 6 per cent of daily services removed, but reliability is still struggling.

A third timetable was published on Friday and will come into force from July 15.

It will have around 200 more daily trains than the pre-May 20 version and is intended to reduce late notice amendments that have plagued some routes in recent weeks.

The latest schedule has also been designed to enable more drivers to be trained on new routes being introduced as part of a major modernisation programme.

The chaos that followed the May 20 timetable change has been partly blamed on a lack of sufficiently trained drivers, in addition to failures by Network Rail and the Department for Transport.

GTR chief operating officer Nick Brown said: "We apologise to passengers for the disruption caused by the introduction of the May timetable due to late approval of these routes.

Nick Brown, GTR’s chief operating officer
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"The new timetable provides passengers with a more robust and reliable service, gives priority to peak hour trains and seeks to reduce gaps in the service. We encourage passengers affected by disruption to seek compensation."

The damaging impact of the new timetables was demonstrated in punctuality figures published by Network Rail on Monday.

More than a third (36 per cent) of Thameslink trains were delayed by at least five minutes between May 27 and June 23, compared with 18 per cent in the same period last year.

The proportion of Great Northern trains failing to hit the punctuality target rose from 16 per cent to 30 per cent.

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