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The StandardTransport for London was today accused of failing to inform passengers about a “second Northern line” through central London because it will be operated by a rival firm.
Thameslink services are to expand in May when trains from Cambridge and Peterborough, currently part of its sister Great Northern franchise, will continue south of King’s Cross and across the Thames to Brighton or Horsham via Gatwick for the first time.
This is part of a £7 billion taxpayer-funded modernisation of a north-south line that is said to be as important as Crossrail.
It includes a key section — Finsbury Park, St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink and Blackfriars — where services will run at “metro” frequencies of eight trains an hour, creating an alternative to the overcrowded Northern line to and from London Bridge.
Thameslink services, which run between Bedford and Brighton, will also be expanded, including a new route linking Luton and the Medway towns via Greenwich and Abbey Wood. An extra 80 stations will join the Thameslink network. The Standard has learned that TfL» had refused to add the new Thameslink services in central London to its Tube map — despite reprinting it to include its own Crossrail, or Elizabeth line, services which start in December.
One rail source told the Standard: “It’s a high-frequency service that is meant to complement the Tube but nobody is going to know about it.”