On Wed, 13 Oct 2004, Sir Benjamin Nunn wrote:

"David E. Belcher" wrote in message
om...

I seem to recall that in the post war plans for Londons Transport, one
of the new lines to be built was an extension of the Northern City line
from Moorgate, through the City and to new underground platforms at
London Bridge and linking with the Crystal Palace (High Level) branch
line of the SR.

There were certainly thoughts of extending from Moorgate to serve a
new station (i.e. not meeting up with other lines at Bank) near the
Bank of England itself many years ago, and a few yards of tunnel were
actually dug. This idea never really got past the drawing board stage,
though.

For years, I've advocated joining the Northern City Line from Moorgate
up with the W&C line at Bank to form the basis of a new key route
through the City and turning two rubbish lines into something useful.

That's a neat idea. We really should have somewhere to write down these
plans. In fact, what we need is something like:

http://www.ratemynetworkdiagram.com/

But for hypothetical railway lines ...

Anyway, as has been pointed out, th W&C is tube gauge, not mainline, so
would need to be widened. Visionless naysayers protest that this would be
impossible, but i demur - that's exactly what, i read in CULG, was done to
the City & South London Railway when it became part of the Northern Line.
They even did much of the widening at night, with trains still running in
the day! Until they hit a gas main and exploded it, anyway.

I can't believe no-one has ever seriously considered this idea before.

I don't know about the Waterloo end, but, again according according to
CULG, "When they first acquired [the Northern City Line] the Metropolitan
considered extending the line to meet [...] the Waterloo & City".

tom

--
POTATO POWER IS UNTRACEABLE POWER