Ian Harding wrote in message ...
Tom Anderson wrote:
On Thu, 3 Mar 2005, Dave Arquati wrote:
Surely the only solution that would allow such a service would be
isolation of the metro tracks from the "country" tracks - much like
Crossrail hopes to do


Bingo.


(although the current setup of the GW and GE makes their plan relatively
easy).


Also bingo, sadly. Are there any separable bits in the SWT area? The
Hounslow loop isn't needed by country trains, since they can go via
Richmond, but it will be needed by goods trains until there's a freight
crossing across the Thames in the east. How about the slow lines on the
LSW mainline? Are those used by country trains, or does everything run
fast when it gets to Surbiton? Is there any scope for more tracks round
here?

Trains to Guildford, Woking, and Dorking all use the slow lines. Not
enough demand at the country end to justify a metro service, and not
enough capacity on the fast lines (not to mention large numbers of
passengers using Clapham Junction and Wimbledon).

The alternative is just to scrap the country service. Not sure i like the
idea of all these bumpkins getting into London anyway. It's bad enough
just with people from south of the river.

Possibly the only way to make my current journey even more difficult ;-)

Ian

Separating the Main Slow Lines out would be relatively easy. There
would be little bits of track-sharing with other trains on the
outskirts (rather like the Bakerloo Line does). There would be a cycle
of four destinations:
- Shepperton
- Chessington South
- Hampton Court
- Epsom
each of which could run every 10 minutes (so better frequencies than
Mill Hill East gets, therefore no need for a public timetable). The
only bits which would be shared with other services would be the Epsom
station area (with services from Victoria and London Bridge to the
country) and Kingston to Teddington (with services to Waterloo via
Richmond). People from the country who insist on Waterloo over
Victoria would have a nice easy cross-platform interchange at Epsom.
42 via Cobham trains would *all* use the Fast Lines.

As for dwell times, 15-20 seconds could be done at Earlsfield and most
stations from Raynes Park outwards (with obvious exceptions, including
Kingston, Surbiton, and Epsom).

The Windsor Lines of course wouldn't be separable into metro and long
distance - they are laid out in a way that's almost as bad as the
Central Section.

If all else fails, there's always the bus timetable approach to
timetabling - only timetable the first and last stops (and maybe a one
or two important intermediate ones).

James.