On Mon, 26 Feb 2006, Paul Weaver wrote:

And would that axis be better served by a Thameslink station at
Southwark, linking up with the Jubilee?

Would that be possible without a long walk? Even if you ignore the
London Bridge branch it's a long way on the map.

Potentially. It rather depends on where the platforms are at Southwark,
and i'm afraid i have absolutely no idea about that. The worst-case
scenario is that they're to the west of the booking hall on Blackfriars
Road; if, as you say, we ignore the London Bridge branch, and consider a
station on the viaduct over Union Street, then it's 200 metres from the
railway station to the tube station, which could be covered with 40 metres
of escalator (going down 20 metres at 2:1 slope) and 160 metres of
passageway. That's certainly a bit of a schlep - two minutes' walk, plus a
bit to actually get to the platforms - but not entirely beyond the bounds
of sanity.

And, outrageous as imposing three minutes' walk on commuters may be, i
certainly think it makes more sense than building a brand new tunnel
meandering under the city just so they can change at already-crowded
Blackfriars for a ride on those tiny wee tram thingies!

Returning to the DLR option, though - perhaps we're missing the point when
we think about how to get from Bank to points west; a better option might
be to forget the Bank branch, and build a branch from Fenchurch Street,
running under the District line, express tube style - after all, the
presence of that line means we know it's clear of foundations, vaults,
etc. You could then either keep some trains running to Bank, or send the
whole lot along the new line, letting people get off at Monument or Cannon
Street if they want to go to the Bank area.

tom

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