On Oct 28, 4:12*pm, "Recliner" wrote:
"Stuart Moore" wrote in message











On Oct 28, 2:54 pm, "Mizter T" wrote:
"Bruce" wrote:
Posted without comment:

Wandsworth reveals Waterloo-Heathrow direct rail plans

Wandsworth Council has today unveiled plans for a new direct rail
service from south London to Heathrow airport.
[...]
A map of the proposed route is available on the council's website:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6xjzzoa

I'll leave it to others to question (/ demolish!) this particular
proposal (/ bit of blue sky thinking), but with regards to the
underlying issue - the lack of rail connectivity from Heathrow to
the south really is a significant missing piece in terms of public
transport access to the airport. I'm sure it'd result in fewer
people getting to and from the airport by car/cab, with the knock-on
benefits in terms of a reduction in road traffic that'd bring
(indeed I'm sure there's some Airtrack related study or two to this
end out there somewhere... but I haven't looked for it, let alone
read it!).

I guess if this proposal went ahead, once the tunnels are there,
there's the option for other routes to link in.

Would the plan give a through route up to the Heathrow express
tunnels? That'd give extra options for joined up transport links.

No, I don't think so. The two sets of lines and platforms are separate,
and parallel to each other (the Airtrack tunnels are south of the HEx
tunnels). Even if there is a connection, it's not meant to be used by
service trains. In any case, the services will be more reliable if kept
separate.

I can't help thinking that providing through lines now is relatively
cheap as part of the main project, whereas adding them later when they
weren't originally planned is expensive. If it enabled another
connection that avoided central London, surely that's worth having.