The Thameslink stopping services would start at South Croydon and the Selhurst depot, so there would be plenty of space for South Londoners - the point is partially to have space on the trains when they reach London Bridge and Blackfriars to provide a fast service linking London Bridge, Blackfriars, City, St Pancras, so it is in their interests to make sure there is enough space for all of us!

Plans currently only exist to extend the platforms to 10 cars along the line. This is primarily for the extended trains that might come when they cut the number of peak services through Forest Hill to allow for the works to take place at London Bridge (presumably in 2015-2019 rather than 2012-2015). It is annoying that they are not doing the extending work in one go, and there are concerns that we will end up with 8 car trains for our Thameslink route rather than 12 car trains, which would be unlikely to adequately cater for commuters on our line in 10 years time, let alone the commuters joining the trains at London Bridge/Blackfriars.

Plenty of questions still to ask, but at least Thameslink will go ahead in some form. I just hope that it is not at the expense of our services rather than improving them.