Sutton / Wimbledon loop

[DJS76]

In pre-covid days, Southern operated a Monday-Friday peak hours only service from London Bride via Peckham Rye, Tulse Hill, Streatham and then anti-clockwise (am peak) or clockwise (PM peak) around the loop and back to London Bridge. A couple of questions on this:

1. This gives stations such as Carshalton and Mitcham Junction 8 trains an hour (4 Victoria, 2 Thameslink and 2 London Bridge) whereas Tooting, Haydons Road etc only gets 2. Does the London Bridge service operate this way for a particular reason? Do loadings justify it? Seems strange that Tooting (for example) has 4 trains an hour in the am peak towards Wimbledon but only 2 an hour towards London.

2. A few years ago, I noticed that when these trains left London in the pm peak, the destination was Wimbledon but earlier this year I noticed it was Sutton. Is there a reason for this change? Did it cause confusion for some reason?

 

[swt_passenger]

In pre-covid days, Southern operated a Monday-Friday peak hours only service from London Bride via Peckham Rye, Tulse Hill, Streatham and then anti-clockwise (am peak) or clockwise (PM peak) around the loop and back to London Bridge. A couple of questions on this:

1. This gives stations such as Carshalton and Mitcham Junction 8 trains an hour (4 Victoria, 2 Thameslink and 2 London Bridge) whereas Tooting, Haydons Road etc only gets 2. Does the London Bridge service operate this way for a particular reason? Do loadings justify it? Seems strange that Tooting (for example) has 4 trains an hour in the am peak towards Wimbledon but only 2 an hour towards London.

The idea is that the Southern peak extras round the loop will run between Blackfriars and London Bridge in future, once there is bay platform capacity at Blackfriars.

That requires a number of planned Thameslink changes to happen, ie linking the Thameslink services up that currently terminate in Kings Cross and Blackfriars. What you see from SN in the pre-Covid timetable is only a part of their full future route. Here’s the intended route:

Route SN3.11:
London Blackfriars – Herne Hill – Streatham – Wimbledon – Sutton
Serving: London Blackfriars, Elephant & Castle, Loughborough Junction, Herne Hill, Tulse Hill, Streatham, Mitcham Eastfields, Mitcham Junction, Hackbridge, Carshalton and Sutton.
Trains will generally continue to Wimbledon and London Bridge as Route SN3.12.
Route SN3.12:
London Bridge– Peckham Rye – Mitcham Eastfields – Sutton
Serving: London Bridge, South Bermondsey, Queens Road Peckham, Peckham Rye, East Dulwich, North Dulwich, Tulse Hill, Streatham, Tooting, Haydons Road, Wimbledon, Wimbledon Chase, South Merton, Morden South, St Helier, Sutton Common, West Sutton and Sutton.
Trains will generally continue to Mitcham Eastfields and London Blackfriars as Route SN3.11

http://www.flua.org.uk/documents/GTR 2018 Timetable Consultation Phase 2 .pdf

I don’t really know about your second point I’m sorry, but I guess it’s possible they were altered to run the section of the route that fits the future timings/paths best.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Southern trains will run from Blackfriars then? Or will Thameslink take over?

 

[30907]

1. London Br - Carshalton - Sutton is a longstanding route and I would guess still has a significant peak flow. I am fairly sure there was a half hourly all day service pre Thameslink. The extension round the Loop is post Thameslink - and the Tooting-LBG flow is also served by LUL. Someone who used the line pre Covid could comment on loadings perhaps?
(swt_passenger refers to the eventual plan, which will obviously need to run both ways round!)
2. Yes, I imagine plain "Wimbledon" (not "via Sutton") would cause confusion. Using Sutton puts them in line with TL.

 

[DorkingMain]

The loadings on the loop service were reasonable pre-COVID. The idea was extra capacity round the loop without having to funnel it back into the busy core / bays at Blackfriars as others have said.

Of course the London commuter metro lines have been probably the hardest hit part of the network as a result of COVID, and so the post-COVID landscape is very uncertain for us. If the current WFH trend continues onward there may be a need to rework the metro network entirely, and point-to-point services (Like the loop) that cater to casual passengers vs commuter funnel into terminals may actually become more useful.