On Jan 25, 11:33*am, Andy wrote:
On Jan 25, 9:10*am, 1506 wrote:



On Jan 24, 12:25*pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

wrote in message

...

Did I hear at some point, however, that they may eventually extend ELL out
to Canden town?

Don't think it has ever been proposed officially. *The track layout is not
designed to allow for extending the ELL west of Highbury & Islington anyway.
Between there and Camden Rd it is laid out as a two track railway in the
centre of the formation with long *passing loops for freight on the outside.
Before the works were slightly reduced, there was a plan for a third
platform at Camden Rd, but this was to allow a Stratford - Camden Rd shuttle
to run.

There are two main reasons it won't happen, IMHO. *Firstly, the NLL capacity
is only 8 tph in the peak, and 6 tph offpeak, to allow for the freight
traffic, so there is no room for additional trains from the ELL without
reducing the NLL service. *If paths were available, eastbound trains towards
the ELL would have to cross westbound passenger and freight trains trains
from the Stratford direction, this would not allow a robust timetable..

The freight loops are a problem. *If they could be moved elsewhere, it
should be possible for the ELL to utliize the southern pair to Camden
Road and Primrose hill. *Freight and the NLL would run on the northern
pair. *It would mean new signalling, a reinstated bridge, and new
platforms.

It would also need a piece of new bridge/viaduct (over Kentish Town
Road) at the western end of Camden Road, between the station and the
junction. Otherwise all the trains will still be sharing a short piece
of double track where the junction is.

I've proposed this several times, as it seems quite a no-brainer to me
to give a totally segregated DC metro service from Watford Junction to
Surrey Quays and the branches following it. If more of the freight
could be diverted via the Goblin and Hampstead Heath (or better yet,
via some other route bypassing inner London), then the issue of the
fright loops becomes moot. The LO lines are no different to the SSL
lines, and we all know what capacities are possible on those.

However, this will become impossible thanks to the strange choice of
method chosen to link HS2 to HS1. They are proposing to tunnel a
single-track tunnel from Old Oak Common all the way to Primrose Hill,
then rise up and take over one of the tracks (widened to UIC gauge)
onward to St. Pancras. I suspect the widening required might require
the removal of the other track over the viaducts though. Why they
don't just continue the tunnel a few hundred metres more to St.
Pancras is beyond me. Sure it will save a tiny fraction of the cost,
but you're crippling the LO network's future prospects.