Neglect increasingly visible on Thameslink trains

Thameslink’s trains may only be a few years old but there’s recently been some grumblings about their general condition and upkeep

Class 700s run across the network and I’d noticed that they’re already looking a bit tired along the Greenwich line.

And blimey, recently there’s been some in pretty bad condition, and not only on the Greenwich line.

The company operates 8 and 12-car trains and I’ve seen some in poor condition on a number of routes and length of train.

Believe me the problem wasn’t isolated to one area of one train. A number have been grubby at best and downright poor at worst recently.

It looks like there’s been some attempt to clean the toilets – which wasn’t wholly successful.

Thameslink is a Driver-Only-Operated network like Southeastern Metro. There’s no regular passenger-facing staff on board which may not prevent issues, but can at least monitor what’s happening.

Well this is nice @TLRailUK pic.twitter.com/WGzAWIlGAx

— Stuart Smith (@stusmithdotcom) April 20, 2023

As it is, this doesn’t seem an isolated problem given a number seen in the recent past.

The trains have only been in service since 2016.

If cuts from government to services aren’t enough to try to put people off rail travel, putting out trains in such poor condition may help it.