Aidan Stanger wrote:

My plan for Line 1 also involves taking over some longer distance
services so that it is more profitable.


(snip)

What do you have against the (far more profitable) longer distance
distinations such as Milton Keynes?

Two words: performance pollution. Crossrail as currently envisioned
would essentially be a tube line on a larger scale - the distance
beyond the conurbation it runs would be comparable with that of the
Metropolitan line.

Won't passengers get a bit hacked off if what is essentially a suburban
commuter service was to be disrupted because of delays on a regional
train eighty miles away?

Personally, I suspect RER-style services work best on a segregated
suburban basis. The current Crossrail proposal does have its problems -
the waste of trains not going west of Paddington, missing out City
Airport, and the rather halfhearted nature of the attempt to serve
North Kent and South East London - but being restricted to fairly local
destinations is not one of them. Neither is serving Whitchapel, which
is likely to become a much more important interchange once the ELL is
completed.

Jonn