395's at Ramsgate

[lapford34102]

Tomorrow sees the start of the full High Speed service between Thanet and St Pancras with some suitable festivities and celebrities at the London end. I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures to record the occasion so here's a few "behind the scenes" ones as actually the timetable started today so I used the excuse of joining No 2 daughter and the hellhound for an afternoon perambulate which conveniently goes past Ramsgate station and depot.

Unfortunately just missed one leaving but did grab this shot as it dissappeared towards Canterbury and Ashford running 3rd rail.

Ramsgate will have an "allocation" of 11 units on a day to day basis though to maintain the full service most will in use. There were a number of Hitachi logo'd white vans in the yard. I don't suppose they want any embarrassing situations developing.

It has to be said that there's not universal rejoicing at the new timetable. The existing timetable has been thinned out and many timings ease so the trains are noticeably slower. A cynical person would say that it a pretty obvious attempt to get people to use the new premium fare link. I think they'd be right. Tshe other problem is that it goes to the wrong bit of London. It's all very well saving 30 minutes if you've then got to get on the Tube. On the North Kent Coast line the time savings are only marginal. Ironically one of the biggest critics has been a local Tory MP who has sounded off publicly on more than one occasion about the new timetable and criticising our local privatised TOC - chickens and roost spring to mind!

Stu

[eastwestdivide]

... On the North Kent Coast line the time savings are only marginal...

That's very true from Faversham/Sittingbourne/Chatham etc to London, but the time savings from Strood/Gravesend are phenomenal, doubly so if you're heading north out of London. Caught one from Strood on Sunday, and 32 mins to St Pancras is a world away from the hour-plus to the other terminals.

Also slightly weird to be on a train there the announcements say "change here for stations to Maidstone West" at one station, and two stops further on, "change here for stations to Brussels and Paris".

[papagolfjuliet]

That's very true from Faversham/Sittingbourne/Chatham etc to London, but the time savings from Strood/Gravesend are phenomenal, doubly so if you're heading north out of London. Caught one from Strood on Sunday, and 32 mins to St Pancras is a world away from the hour-plus to the other terminals.

 

Quite so, although I was still later for work today than I would have been taking the FCC train to Farringdon, because the guard on the 07:37 was late for work with the result that that service terminated at Ebbsfleet and delayed the following 08:07 train (which I caught instead) by ten minutes.