Tom Anderson wrote:
Agreed - this would be a repeat of the exercise in futility that is the
ELL extension, only far worse. Lines really need to give people access to
central London; once they have that, you can think about orbital routes.

Actually, a considerable amount of central London tube congestion -
and much suburban road congestion - is caused by the fact that the
quickest public transport route for many suburb to suburb journeys is
via the centre. This includes suburbs essentially on the same side of
London - e.g. Greenford to Richmond.

Orbital routes are still generally cheaper to build than ones across
central London, making them one of the more cost-effective ways of
relieving zone 1 tube congestion.

But I'm in favour of Crossrail, if it is built as a metro service.

Colin McKenzie