"Dr. Sunil" wrote in message
om...
Tom Anderson wrote in message
...
On Tue, 12 Oct 2004, simon wrote:

with the almost certain expansion of Stansted airport, in the long
term,
returning the Epping-Ongar route might make sense.

Hang on, just how much are they planning to extend Stansted? I make it
about 20 km from the airport to Ongar ...

tom


http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...em.bc.ic.ac.uk

From: Sunil )
Subject: Epping to Ongar: expected to open by Easter 2000, six
months early
Newsgroups: uk.railway, uk.transport.london
Date: 1999/10/22

[Madcap Plan alert!]

How about *somehow* building a 'South Essex Railway' from Harlow,
south to Epping, utilise the old Ongar route and continue eastwards to
Brentwood and Shenfield, thus enabling a Cambridge/Stansted to
Southend service to be run?

[ducks for cover]

Sunil

The 2002 'London - Ipswich Multi-Modal Study' (LOIS) for the Department for
Transport identified a new Stratford-Chelmsford route as a possible future
rail development. This might take over the Stratford-Epping part of the
central line and the disused bit to Ongar. There could also be a new line
from Epping to Stanstead via Harlow.

This LOIS (like all the others) has been largely ignored by the government.
But the only reason for Essex County Council being willing to buy the line
is to preserve the route (not necessarily as a railway) for future transport
needs. Other daft schemes such as 'guided busways' have been mentioned from
time to time.

Essex still haven't bought the line but, if they do, the preservationists
will need to establish it as a major tourist attraction if they don't want
to be evicted when the council either gets bored with the idea; wants to
build a road over part of it - or needs the money and decides to sell the
land again.