Thameslink currently lists the East Croydon–Bedford journey at around 1h 23m fastest / 1h 36m average, making it a substantial but very playable route. TSW7 Route Proposal: East Croydon – Bedford Proposed route East Croydon → Bedford # Station 1 East Croydon 2 Norwood Junction 3 London Bridge 4 Blackfriars 5 City Thameslink 6 Farringdon 7 St Pancras International 8 Kentish Town 9 Cricklewood 10 Hendon 11 Mill Hill Broadway 12 Elstree & Borehamwood 13 Radlett 14 St Albans City 15 Harpenden 16 Luton Airport Parkway 17 Luton 18 Leagrave 19 Harlington 20 Flitwick 21 Bedford Important: the exact stopping pattern could vary depending on the timetable era chosen. Why it would be excellent in TSW The route could offer several very different environments: South London East Croydon Norwood Junction London Bridge Dense urban scenery Busy junctions and intensive traffic Central London Blackfriars City Thameslink Farringdon St Pancras International Snow Hill tunnel / core section Extremely dense AI traffic North London Kentish Town Cricklewood Hendon Mill Hill Broadway Bedfordshire Elstree & Borehamwood St Albans Harpenden Luton Flitwick Bedford More open countryside and higher-speed running Rolling stock The Class 700/0 and Class 700/1 would be the obvious centrepieces. I'd propose: Class 700/0 – core services Class 700/1 – Bedford services AI Southern services around East Croydon AI Southeastern services around London Bridge AI freight/other operators where appropriate The route could also make excellent use of TSW6's dynamic features such as random events, signal delays and speed restrictions.
A sneaky and rare appearance by a Class 717 at Blackfriars in the top photo. I assume they go down to Three Bridges for maintenance. Anyway, this would make a very good new route that would be perfect if timed to release at the same time as an updated London to Brighton route. If we include Kings Cross to Peterborough we'll have two northern branches for Thameslink. Though a personal preference would be a 1987 NSE/Intercity setting with HSTs, Class 319s and a few remaining Class 317s on Moorgate peak services.
Me too, if this comes need to have the slow lines with southern 377, to London Bridge and I think London overground 710 to New Cross gate.
This is why I think if we had Bedford to London it would only run as far south as Blackfriars but could even finish at St.Pancras upper and lower levels. There's a heck of a lot of modelling needed for the Selhurst to Blackfriars approach via London Bridge, if it's also coming with the Thameslink route via Loughborough Junction. I've said before that routes like Crossrail are unlikely. London routes have large expanses of assets and distant scenery. All of the TSW routes that travel above ground into London have performance issues. That's with one set of central London skyscrapers, dense inner-cities followed by miles of track through the suburban sprawl. A cross-London route would have two portions of inner-city and suburbia. That's going to take a lot of processing. I think you'll only get London Bridge in a South East London network or, as in TSC, a South London network.
