London Banter - View Single Post - Crossrail

David Cantrell · June 17th 10, 10:28 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 11:39:00AM +0000, d wrote:

Its nice to be proved wrong sometimes. Lets hope they don't just do something
silly like string up the catenary really low or put a load of trackside
furniture in that precludes UIC gauge trains in the future.

Why? There won't be any UIC-gauge connection to the rest of the world.
The closest UIC gauge track would be at St Pancras, and (maybe) later
HS2, but HS2 ain't gonna happen in anything like the same timescale as
Crossrail, so they might as well use existing designs for trackside
equipment for now, and only upgrade and clear it out of the way in the
distant future when there's a connection to HS2, and thence to HS1, and
thence to Civilisation. But even then, can you really see there being
any demand for trains from other UIC-gauge routes trundling along
Crossrail? I can't.

The real reason for building honking girt big tunnels in the central
section is to reduce air resistance and frictional heating, thus
letting trains accelerate and run faster, and reducing the air-
conditioning bill.

--
David Cantrell | semi-evolved ape-thing

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