London Banter - View Single Post

Tom Anderson · October 31st 05, 07:48 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 wrote:

Dave Arquati wrote:

Somewhat untrue. Crossrail will have huge benefits - in the order of
£20bn at the last estimate. It may have minor benefits to the new
residents in Stevenage and Harlow, but certainly not zero. As Tom said,
Crossrail releases capacity into Liverpool St for Harlow trains, and it
will also provide rapid access and increased capacity to the West End
and Canary Wharf for passengers from Stevenage changing off Thameslink
at Farringdon.

Whilst Crossrail releases capacity at Liverpool St it does nothing about
increasing capacity on the double track section as far as Cheshunt. I
don't know how much more capacity there is and even if there was is
there any spare further south.

Indeed - the critical section is between Clapton junction, where the Lea
Valley and Chingford branches join, and Hackney, where the line goes
four-track; this stretch carries all the traffic from outside London, plus
all the suburban traffic from the Lea Valley and Chingford branches, all
on one pair of tracks (i'm ignoring the southern extent of the Lea Valley
line, which goes to Stratford, for now).

However, at the moment, the approach to Liverpool Street, which consists
of four tracks, handles all this, plus the suburban trains from the
Enfield/Southbury branch, plus all the Great Eastern traffic. It seems
unlikely to me that four tracks could do that if the Clapton section was
running at full capacity. I used to live less than a hundred metres from
that line, and it certainly didn't seem like it was to me.

BICBW.

tom

--
see im down wid yo sci fi crew