THC wrote:
M J Forbes wrote:
The rearrangement around Paddingtion is for Crossrail which appears in
2016:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/downloads/...t-onthemap.pdf
And also includes the West London Transit system, which brings the total
number of stations in Acton to 8 (North, South, East, West, Central, Town,
Vale, and just plain "Acton"). Not bad, considering it's about a quarter of
the size of Portsmouth (rough guess by playing with a map and a ruler),
which has 4 ....

Greater Acton (for want of a better name for it because great it ain't)
and surrounding areas served by these stations probably has as many
people within its range (i.e. large chunks of LB Ealing, LB Hammersmith
& Fulham, parts of LB Brent and LB Hounslow) as Portsmouth, which had
187,000 souls at the 2001 census. You also have to factor in Acton's
proximity to two of the largest net employment hubs in the country;
those in LB Hillingdon (Heathrow Airport and supply chain/ancillary
industry) and LB Hammersmith and Fulham (e.g. BBC and agglomerative
media industries, Westfield development at White City) and its location
on key radial travel routes (Central, Piccadilly, District lines) to
understand why it is so well served for rail-based public transport.
Anyway, it has only six stations ATM, not that I'm splitting hairs or
anything.

Whereas AIUI Portsmouth is at the "end of the line" and of no
particular strategic importance in the current clime. Nor is it home
to several of the ruling administration's favourite MPs, as is the part
of West London you describe. Umm, hold on, we may be onto something
here... ;-)

I can't help but feel that you are doing Pompey a dis-service. It
hasn't got much, but what it has got is of strategic importance, given
that a substantial protion of our navy is based there. Strategic is
about the only thing it has got.

Robin