Commuters face losing their direct Thameslink route to City

THOUSANDS of commuters in south London face having their direct rail link to the City severed, campaigners claimed today.

The first stage of a consultation on plans to modernise Thameslink, which runs north-south through the capital, is due to close next week.

Plans include cutting direct services into the City from the "Wimbledon loop".

The proposal is buried in two paragraphs of the 160-page consultation document, published in March.

The move would mean thousands of passengers who board at stations including Streatham, Tooting, Mitcham, Wimbledon, South Merton and Sutton would no longer have a direct link to City Thameslink, Farringdon, St Pancras and stations beyond.

Instead, their services would terminate at Blackfriars from 2015, forcing them to change trains if they wanted to continue. Passengers fear it would add about half an hour to journeys from the Wimbledon Loop.

The other branch of Thameslink in south London, which serves East Croydon and London Bridge, will still run through Blackfriars and go direct into the City. The changes are part of a huge upgrade of Thameslink to accommodate larger, 12-carriage trains.

A Facebook group has been set up called Save our South West London Thameslink Services. Chuka Umunna, Labour Party parliamentary candidate for Streatham, called consultation a "sham", saying: "The proposals are unacceptable. They will have a huge effect on thousands of residents. In Streatham alone two million journeys were made last year into the City.

"Thameslink provides the only direct route for train users from south-west London to the City and beyond that could now be taken away."

Mr Umunna urged commuters to object while they still had a chance: "[Network Rail] haven't given a single leaflet to service users or put up a single poster to canvass our views. There has been no meaningful consultation and now they're seeking to quietly push these plans as a fait accompli."

Mr Umunna claimed Network Rail wanted to avoid the expense of having to upgrade the Wimbledon Loop stations which can only accommodate eight-car trains effectively downgrading the loop to a "feeder route" into the main Thameslink line.

Network Rail defended the proposals. PJ Taylor, deputy head of media at the organisation, said: "It's a huge project that will bring vast improvements to commuters across London.

"We've consulted Passenger Focus, local authorities and all relevant people. We've nothing to hide and the consultation has been open. To suggest otherwise is absolute rubbish.

"When draft consultation is approved we will have another 90 days-worth of further consultation before anything is set in stone." Valerie Shawcross, London Assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark, said: "Many people have moved into the area because of this service and there is a heavy reliance on direct access to Farringdon and City Thameslink.

"It is not acceptable to remove this service. It will be a dramatic disruption to thousands of commuters."