"Gary Jenkins" wrote in message
om...

I agree that South East London needs better transport, and that
Crossrail
isn't it. (I think it's mildly ridiculous that it won't serve Woolwich,
for
a start). But I definitely don't think it's TL2000 - if I was living in,
say, Eltham and could choose between two trains per hour to Charing
Cross
and two more onto Thameslink, and four to Charing Cross, I'd choose the
latter.


But wouldn't TL2000 offer the possibility of four an hour to Charing
Cross plus two on Thameslink?

Not without some serious work upgrading the lines. And any suggestions would
no doubt be met with, "What do you need more trains for? You've already got
two to Charing Cross, and two on Thameslink."


I'm not sure a tube type service off peak is really needed. Moving
from four to six trains an hour, as the Strategic Rail Authority is
currently suggesting, seems to be a lot of investment for
comparatively little benefit. It shouldn't be beyond the wit of most
people to plan their journey to cope with four evenly spaced trains an
hour, at the same times past each hour. If someone does just turn up
on spec then a maximum wait of 15 mins isn't that much worse than one
of ten minutes.


I agree that for a lot of suburban routes trains per hour should do it. But
I think it would be better to have 4tph to a single destination - people
don't just want to go to "London", they want to go to Charing Cross, or
Victoria, or London Bridge. If it's 2tph to Charing Cross and another 2tph
to Victoria, that's effectively only a half-hour frequency to my mind.

I think Thameslink would be better providing 4+ trains per hour on a
smaller number of routes, taking them over completely. That way, there's
service predictability - you can turn up and know there'll be a train to
Blackfriars and King's Cross (timetabled) within the next fifteen minutes.

If Thameslink took the Bexleyheath, Swanley and Sutton loop routes over
completely for 4tph each, and then served some longer distance routes less
regularly, I think that'd be a much bigger improvement to services than just
redirecting a random selection of trains to Blackfriars every day.


As an alternative to a Bakerloo extension is it feasible to hope for a
Jubilee line branch from North Greenwich in a south-easterly direction
towards Charlton. Eltham and Sidcup? Alternatively this could be a
completely new line going on northwards to Canary Wharf, Mile End and
Hackney and finishing off at Finsbury Park or Tottenham Hale. This
could be delivered either for the 75th Jubilee of Elizabeth II (2027),
the 80th birthday of Charles III (2028) or the 50th birthday of
William V (2032)

Maybe it's just because I'm a republican (not in the US sense), but I don't
really believe that transport should be planned around royal birthdays... At
any rate, I don't think we'll be seeing any new 'tube lines' in London. I
think Crossrail type takeovers of suburban routes is the best we'll get.

Jonn