THE first 12-car trains are on schedule to start running on the Thameslink route of First Capital Connect this December.

First Capital Connect said work is well underway at key sites in central London to accommodate the longer trains.

At the moment, the two biggest development sites are Farringdon and Blackfriars (pictured).

The work at Farringdon includes preparatory work for Crossrail, and one lift shaft, more than 20 metres deep, has just been sunk.

Meanwhile, the new station at Blackfriars is now taking shape on its bridge across the Thames. When complete, Blackfriars will include entrances on both banks, while the station itself has been moved south and now spans the river.

Much of the new trainshed is now in place, and work is also well underway on rebuilding the piers of the former London, Chatham and Dover Railway bridge alongside, which had been disused for many years but will come back into use to support the new bay platforms for terminating trains from the south.

First Capital Connect has confirmed that it will be sub-leasing three more 4-car Class 377 units to form one of the three 12-car trains which will enter service in December. Two others will be provided by using six of the 23 Class 377s which FCC already leases from Southern on a long-term but temporary basis. Eventually, these are to be replaced by the new Thameslink fleet, an acquisition which will also allow more than 80 Class 319 Thameslink units to be cascaded to newly electrified routes from Paddington and in the north west.

However, for the next six or seven years 12-car trains will only be used on Thameslink for services which run non-stop between London and St Albans, although the platforms at most of the intermediate stations south of St Albans are also being lengthened now.

Eventually, the core Thameslink route will carry 24 trains an hour in each direction, some of which will turn right into a new tunnel just north of St Pancras International to become Great Northern suburban services heading towards Peterborough or Cambridge. This linking tunnel has already been complete for some time, but track has yet to be laid along it.