"James" wrote in message
m...
Just been announced that the government is to give Ken authority
over
all railways "within the GLA area".

See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3894791.stm

Does this mean that the mutterings about zones 7, 8 and 9 might go
ahead?

Possibly, but remember that the boundary of zone 6 is in almost all
cases coterminous with the boundary of the GLA area. (i.e. 'Greater
London' or the 33 London Boroughs) Indeed, if zone 7 comes into
existence, Buckhurst Hill-Epping, Roding Valley-Grange Hill and Thames
Ditton-Hampton Court might well be moved into it. (Are there any other
places within Zone 6 but outside Greater London?)

Yes. Stoneleigh station is in Ewell, Surrey (but only just). It's
probably why it's in zone 6 rather than 4 or 5. It also makes it look
slightly less obvious that the GLC boundary suddenly zig-zags in and
out by about 3 miles at that point (and is consequently very silly and
rather inconvenient).

The catchment area for Stoneleigh includes some houses that are in Greater
London (just to the NE). It would be unfair to those residents (who pay for
the GLA after all) if their local station was outside the zone.

Looking at a map Stoneleigh the boundary is particularly crazy in places,
cutting randomly through gardens & streets. Clearly the estate was built
with no respect to the old borough boundaries. This area is crying out for a
boundary alteration.

Really, the whole issue of zones shows up how the GLC boundary is in
the wrong place. There are two approaches I would like to see - either
that Epsom & Ewell and Reigate & Banstead get pushed into Greater
London, or that Kingston and Richmond are moved back into Surrey
(which would at least have the useful function of moving the centre of
gravity of the county away from Guildford), forcing co-operation
across borders.

No way are Richmond & Kingston going to leave the GLA. And almost certainly
the residents of Epsom won't want to leave Surrey.

The simple answer is to relocate the boundary so that it includes the whole
of Stoneleigh & Ewell Court so that it follows the natural boundary. This
has been done in many other places since 1965.