In article , Chetoph
writes
politics. A much cheaper way of making the ELL useful would have been to
extend the track all of 200 yards from shorditch to join up with the
tracks
into Liverpool street

When they redesigned Liverpool Street they should have thought about
reinstating the link between the Metropolitan line and the main line
platforms and then run through services onto the East London Line.
Misses out the need for the St Mary's curve. I'm sure platform space
could be found.

The issue with either of these ideas is not platform space - there's 18
platforms there - but rather capacity on the six tracks in and out of
the station. These tracks are full to capacity in the peaks; there's no
realistic chance of fitting yet another service on to them, particularly
with a flat junction at Shoreditch. [You might do a bit better by making
the Up Electric bidirectional into 17 and 18, but I suspect there still
wouldn't be the capacity.]

In the case of the Circle-Liverpool Street-ELL idea, you've got the
further problem that such services would have to cross the entire
station throat, losing a *huge* number of paths. The present
arrangement, as with many London termini, keeps each of the five service
groups (WA inner, WA outer, Anglia, GE inner, GE outer) separate as far
as possible, sorting them out at places with more capacity such as
Hackney, Ilford, and Shenfield.

--
Clive D.W. Feather, writing for himself | Home:
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