Southern takes over Thameslink

[Hamilton]

Rejoice!

...to a degree. I'd rather see it all nationalised.

 

[dazzer6666]

Good news. FCC are utter sh*te. Crap (old, badly designed, tatty) trains, poor timeliness record, constant delays and cancellations. I don't have an option if I want to get to my desk by 7am.

I'm more worried though about the impending carnage at London Bridge as they rebuild the station...............time to look for a job in the West End methinks

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

With a horse and cart

Well, that is what FCC planed to give commuters an actual cattle class service.....rather than providing it with actual stock.

Hastings/Eastbourne and Lewes will all get faster services to London, but still get shafted by Brighton which will now get EIGHT off-peak trains to London an hour.....talk about overkill when the East and West coast lines suffer overcrowding on London services.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This is ****ing unbelievable. How on earth can you let this happen? Seriously, how?

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

This is ****ing unbelievable. How on earth can you let this happen? Seriously, how?

What's actually the problem?

 

[Prince Monolulu]

I know sod all about trains. Basically, does this mean that the useful footie ticket (GroupSave) will now cover a wider geographical area?

 

[Arthur]

Good news. FCC are utter sh*te. Crap (old, badly designed, tatty) trains, poor timeliness record, constant delays and cancellations. I don't have an option if I want to get to my desk by 7am.

I'm more worried though about the impending carnage at London Bridge as they rebuild the station...............time to look for a job in the West End methinks

Always have a working toilet though!!

I'm not joking either. My southern operated line has the modern turbostar fleet which are I would guess more than 10 years old now and still in pretty good nick. Comparable to other rolling stock especially the awful FCC stock they are very nice.....however the toilets on them are the modern electronic ones which lock themselves when they are full, with a belly full of beer and an hour plus journey home I know which one I'd be on.

Incidentally the guard on my service announced as we pulled into London Bridge yesterday morning this news and sounded very pleased with himself. I don't have an issue with it at all. Southern are shit but if they were to be replaced they'd only be replaced by someone equally as shit if not more. A case of better the devil you know in my opinion.

 

[Arthur]

I know sod all about trains. Basically, does this mean that the useful footie ticket (GroupSave) will now cover a wider geographical area?

Southern operate the GroupSave ticket (or at least they did, not bought one for years) so you should be ok.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Gatwick Express fleet to be replaced, as will the 319 trains which will start to be replaced this winter.

Southern 313 fleet should also be replaced.

Hooray those trains are worse than the Fcc ones.

Uncomfortable
One single door at each end
Takes ages to get off
Always and I mean always breaking down. Especially the doors.

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Hooray those trains are worse than the Fcc ones.

Uncomfortable
One single door at each end
Takes ages to get off
Always and I mean always breaking down. Especially the doors.

You missed off "On fire half the time" too. Gatwick Express fleet to be replaced by the end of 2016.........apparently.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Wasn't the whole point of privatisation to provide competition and therefore keep prices down?

(Rather than make money for corporate shareholders as some cynics suggested at the time?)

No , making more money for corporate shareholders rather than ploughing some of the profits back into the business to make ongoing improvements was always the aim. Privatisation is all about making more money for shareholders from squeezing the pips.

 

[Ken Newbury]

Hooray those trains are worse than the Fcc ones.

Uncomfortable
One single door at each end
Takes ages to get off
Always and I mean always breaking down. Especially the doors.

I'd argue about them being uncomfortable, I prefer the seats on the Gatwick Express trains to those on Southern and FCC, they are comfortable with decent legroom. When I get the train to London roughly twice a week I'd always chose Gatwick Express over the other two for comfort.

I must just be lucky I guess, twice a week on average for the last three years and only ever had one Gatwick Express train cancelled, never broken down and rarely more than 5mins late into London!

 

[8ace]

Always have a working toilet though!!

I'm not joking either. My southern operated line has the modern turbostar fleet which are I would guess more than 10 years old now and still in pretty good nick. Comparable to other rolling stock especially the awful FCC stock they are very nice.....however the toilets on them are the modern electronic ones which lock themselves when they are full, with a belly full of beer and an hour plus journey home I know which one I'd be on.

313s have no toliets on board, try catching one of them from Portsmouth to Brighton after a couple.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I'd argue about them being uncomfortable, I prefer the seats on the Gatwick Express trains to those on Southern and FCC, they are comfortable with decent legroom. When I get the train to London roughly twice a week I'd always chose Gatwick Express over the other two for comfort.

Same, absolutely. They might be old, as the NSC trainspotters tell us, but they don't FEEL old, and they're invariably less crowded than Southern/FCC trains, particularly in the rush hour. OK, so some of them tend to get a bit bogged down at Gatwick while one lot of tourists dawdle off and then another lot of tourists dawdle on, but many Gatwick Express trains offer the priceless benefit of not stopping at the ghetto that is East Croydon. What's not to like?

 

[Tricky Dicky]

313s have no toliets on board, try catching one of them from Portsmouth to Brighton after a couple.

I've always thought that should be illegal. All trains and stations should have compulsory decent toilet facilities. It may be my personal agenda, but I'm Not joking.

 

[Beach Hut]

Some FCC mangers will be very nervous over this announcement.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I've always thought that should be illegal. All trains and stations should have compulsory decent toilet facilities. It may be my personal agenda, but I'm Not joking.

Seems to recall that [MENTION=257]The Large One[/MENTION] reported on here, either last Winter or the Winter before, that he and a couple of dozen random passengers got stranded on an evening broken down train with no toilets between Lewes and Brighton for about six hours. As memory serves, they had to, er, IMPROVISE. Can you imagine the absolute CARNAGE if that happened after an evening game at the Amex?

 

[albionite]

Some FCC mangers will be very nervous over this announcement.

I would imagine they will restructure the managment over all three tocs in south east they run.

As far as i'm aware fcc will revert back to thameslink, gatwick express will stay the same and southern will be southern. Can't see too much changing it will run as it runs now.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

An excellent decision. I'm looking forward to the expansion of the Thameslink network, with trains running through to Peterborough - as well as Farringdon developing into a seriously good interchange station with connections to Crossrail (and services to Wales, Bristol and East Anglia). It will also reduce the overcrowding on London Underground's cross-London routes.

 

[Beach Hut]

I would imagine they will restructure the managment over all three tocs in south east they run.

As far as i'm aware fcc will revert back to thameslink, gatwick express will stay the same and southern will be southern. Can't see too much changing it will run as it runs now.

You have missed the point as SR has enveloped in Gatwick Express to the management structure already, the only difference is the branding and uniforms so the same will happen with FCC.