"Mark Bestley" wrote in message
...
tim... wrote:

"martin.coffee" wrote in message
news
On 12/10/18 08:27, tim... wrote:
Um, how does building a new line to serve a new area create extra
capacity to accommodate growth on the current network?
Because some passengers will start using the new line in preference to
the
old one.

the new line doesn't parallel the old one.

It goes somewhere completely different (having shared track for the first
2/3 stations


You cannot put more trams into Wimbledon station as there is no space so
if you want to increase the numbr of trams along Croydon-Wimbledon axis
you need another terminal. Thus add South Wimbledon - and in ths case
not all its trams will go to Sutton others will go to Croydon.


And that is what is says in the document.

Unlocking
the potential of the
Wandle Valley


"Trams could unlock this by delivering
a new South Wimbledon-Croydon
service, offering more capacity and
new connectivity
• The housing gain could help fund
many of the needed tram
enhancements
"

Note Wandle Valley is along the current Croydon-Mitcham tram line.

but that's all provided by the new (proposed) terminus at S Wimbledon

the line to Sutton provides none of that benefit, that's my point.

You might argue that building the line to Sutton makes the S Wimbledon
terminus more cost effective, but that's a fallacious argument.

And in any case, if the congested part of the route is at Wandle Valley and
you need somewhere short of Wimbledon to turn extra services from Croydon
(until Crossrail 2 (don't laugh) releases space at Wimbledon Main), adding a
third platform/track at Merton Park by using the (still undeveloped) land
previously occupied by the junction to Merton Abbey, seems a much
quicker/cheaper way to provide that.

It might be argued that a terminus at Merton Park is no good to anybody, but
what is the real benefit of S Wimbledon. Oh it interchanges with the
underground. Though what percentage of travellers are going to want to do
that (given that trams from Sutton have already passed Morden station)? For
Central London, change at Wimbledon onto Waterloo services is much quicker.

And where is this route to SW going to go. Down the already very congested
main road? And where's the station going to be? I can't see that putting a
station there is going to be possible without knocking down a number of
properties (or putting it underground).

This idea of a track to SW just looks like, what did someone call it
"lineism!

tim