On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 19:42:41 +0100, John wrote:
In article , Paul Corfield
writes
On 14 Jul 2003 14:15:59 -0700, (nmtop40) wrote:
[crossrail]
It's a connecting line around London we need, not more lines going
through the middle of it.
I agree with the orbital line idea in addition to Crossrail and I think
it could be done relatively cheaply if people employed some imagination
as to the execution of the concept.
People in favour of crossrail often quote people wanting to travel from
the GE lines to Paddington - but how many want to? Surely lots want to
travel from GE to Waterloo/Victoria - I do quite often, and others want
to go to go from Marylebone to London Bridge.
But that is not the whole story is it. Crossrail will relieve a lot of
other lines as well as provide very quick links across the centre. If
you live in Ilford and want to go to Oxford St you currently get a GE
train and then a tube. In future one train to TCR that is much faster
overall as the line speed will be far higher than the Tube.
Let's say you want to go Romford to Gatwick. In future one fast train to
Farringdon then one fast Thameslink to Gatwick. There are a myriad of
options opened up with Crossrail. I think people need to use the RER in
Paris to see how good a concept it is in comparison to the Metro (which
is good at what it does too but it is comparatively slow and nearly
always requires one change to get anywhere).
I commute to Kings Cross from the GE - it would probably ease my travel
a bit, but I am not convinced by the plan - given the number of people
or orbit the M25 I can see advantages in an orbital line linking key
interchanges.
so in future you get one direct train to Farringdon and then Thameslink
or a Tube one stop. Sounds fine and dandy to me (assuming it all works,
of course).
I'd like to see Thameslink 2050 (!) built, Crossrail 1 then something
doing KX- Victoria (Crossrail 2) and then Waterloo / Vauxhall - Euston
preferably linking into Holborn / Aldwych. The only really difficult
option would be whether we could create a London version of Chatelet Les
Halles (Paris) with (nearly) all the lines linked or whether you'd have
a couple of big Central London interchange stations.
--
Paul C
Admits to working for London Underground!