Govia Thameslink Railway plans timetable shakeup to improve London-bound trains after summer of strikes and cancellations

AN under-fire rail operator has announced plans for what it calls the "biggest timetable shake-up" in a generation.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) was slammed after months of delays and cancellations caused by strikes over changes to the role of conductors.

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Staff shortages and high sickness rates among employees also contributed to the travel misery for GTR’s customers.

But the company has now revealed it plans to boost capacity and "completely recast" many new connections in the south of England to London as well as Bedford, Peterborough and Cambridge.

GTR's Southern franchise – which was particularly badly hit by the recent travel chaos – will be the main focus of the changes.

The operator said the new timetable will come into effect from 2018, promising they will bring greater reliability on Southern's inner London services and new Thameslink routes from Kent.

There would also be a "massive increase" in Thameslink trains at London Bridge, the company said.

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Phil Hutchinson, who is leading a public consultation for GTR on the plans, said: "We are proposing a complete redesign of the timetable by looking at which journeys are most important to passengers.

"We are creating more capacity and new cross-London routes with connections to Crossrail and more punctual and reliable services.

"Operationally, each route would be self-contained so that if a problem occurs it does not affect other routes.

"We want passengers and stakeholders to help us shape their future train service so we are consulting, we think, earlier than any train operator has before.

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"This is a real opportunity for passengers and stakeholders to get involved in an open, honest and transparent conversation about what the train service should be in the future.

"This is about creating better connections and more capacity. It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restructure the timetable to give passengers more trains and the much better reliability we all want.

"Ultimately this will put the Thameslink route at the heart of the UK rail network."

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