London Banter - View Single Post

Tom Anderson · June 14th 05, 10:48 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 wrote:

Dave Arquati wrote:
wrote:

He (Ken Livingstone) added: "Simply bidding for the Games has brought
forward a host of transport improvements - with the East London Line
extension, the new £400m ticket hall at King's Cross, and the £91m
package of improvements to the North London Line all given added
momentum." What are the improvements to the NLL? £91M doesn't seem to
by much these days so it can't be much of an improvement.

It should be for:
- signalling enhancements
- improved power supply
- new "resilience measures" to counter late-running freight services - I
think this just means a new/reinstated freight loop
- platform extensions for 6-car trains where necessary
- frequency doubling to 8tph

I'm not sure how they are squeezing the £91m for those measures, but
that's what it's for.

Are they actually planning to increase the length of trains, where will
the extra trains come from, also for increased frequency. Incredible for
a line that 30 years ago BR would hve quite happily confined to the
waste dump (passenger services anyway). I have always thought the 3 car
trains from Euston to Watford Junc needed extra carriages when you see
the overcrowding so would have thought that this should take priority
over the NLL.

The same could be said about the trains on the WAGN lines. I really don't
get Ken's infatuation with the NLL; it's just not serving a corridor with
heavy demand, so why give it so much attention?

Mind you, 91 million isn't exactly a lot.

tom

--
I content myself with the Speculative part [...], I care not for the Practick. I seldom bring any thing to use, 'tis not my way. Knowledge is my ultimate end. -- Sir Nicholas Gimcrack