published today:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/southcentralfranchise/southc...

Paul

published today:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/southcentralfranchise/southc...

Paul

The new franchise it to only be 5 years and 10 months?

That'll hardly give the new operator enough time to tape over the
Southern logos and re-vinyl everything

Good to see that the WCML-WLL service will be extended back northwards
again.  I imagine (judging by the number of people who connect into it
at Watford from points north) this will be a very popular move.

At the south end I'm not so sure (given that it will end up being
truncated to Clapham Jn rather than Gatwick) but then again there are
a wide variety of destinations available from Clapham Jn as compared
to Watford Jn, and so you'd only have pleased a small subset of
passengers by running to Brighton.

Neil

news:f476d760-b93f-4ba9-95ca-8a83f9e3bfe4@y21g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

The difficulty (according to London Travelwatch) is using platform 17 at CJ
for turning out a whole train of connecting pax.  What I was wondering
though, if LO are going to have an extra two tph on the WLL, why can't they
just be projected south over the slow lines to replace the short lived 2 tph
East Croydon - Shepherds Bush service?

It is noticeable that there is very little said about transferring SL Metro
routes to LO, perhaps this has gone off the boil with Ken's departure. Also,
despite recent rumours, particularly Ken's hints during a TV debate, the
ELLX phase 2 is still confirmed unfunded.

Paul

news:Ptadnclg0IWg-qjVnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@posted.plusnet

Yes, that surprised me, too -- is the short duration something to do
with Thameslink?

Funny you should say that - the following para. is on page 21:
'The franchise length is shorter than the Department would normally let.
However, this gives maximum flexibility to redefine the South Central
and Thameslink Great Northern (First Capital Connect) franchises in
2015, when the Thameslink Programme is complete. The current First
Capital Connect franchise will end in March 2015, if continued to its
maximum length.'

Mind you, this new South Central franchise is only 2 months shorter than
the current TLGN franchise (excluding any extensions that the DfT wishes
to grant to either franchise). For some reason, the DfT have included
that optional extension within their above description of the TLGN
franchise, but not the new SC franchise.

In message <1211468172.3103...@proxy01.news.clara.net>, at 15:55:32 on
Thu, 22 May 2008, Recliner <nig...@clara.co_dot_uk> remarked:

"Short duration" and "Thameslink" - not things you often see in the same
sentence :)
--
Roland Perry