"nmtop40" wrote in message
m...
Matthew Malthouse wrote in message
...
At least that's what the Evening Standard headline said. I only had
time
to skim the first couple of pars and the only other point I saw was that
it was unlikely to be complete in time for a possible Olympics in 2012
in part because enabling legislation was unlikely before next year.

Matthew

presumably this is the E/W line through the middle of London.

But is it really really necessary?

Yes. I believe the last study showed an extremely favourable ratio of
benefits to costs, despite the costs being £10bn (give or take).
Travel in London is forecast to grow. The Underground is running to
capacity; the London rail termini are also operating to capacity (isn't
London Bridge working to 110% capacity?). Crossrail will relieve passenger
flows through crowded stations and free up capacity on lines into termini in
order to boost services. Running a line across London promotes growth. Vital
for the London economy, etc etc. See www.crossrail.co.uk, or Google for
various reports into it which prove it is necessary to sustain growth.

It's a connecting line around London we need, not more lines going
through the middle of it.

The first steps towards this are being taken with the East London Line
extensions, which are designed to begin to provide orbital connections
inside London, as a precursor to an Orbirail franchise. However orbital
lines further out are much more difficult to justify economically. Despite
being overcrowded, the M25 doesn't mean a given orbital route will function,
because the M25 has spread out origins and destinations of travel, making it
difficult to ease the problem with public transport.

The Orbirail study pointed out that Crossrail may help with some orbital
journeys since it will provide a direct link between locations that people
wouldn't have otherwise considered a cross London rail journey for. Heathrow
to Brentwood is an example.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7