On Thu, 8 Jun 2006 11:40:17 UTC, "John B" wrote:

: Ian Johnston wrote:
: : Just
: : makes me wonder if the money being invested in the ELL wouldn't have
: : been better spent going towards Crossrail, given that the latter can't
: : get the funding.
:
: It can't get the funding, though, because it's a completely crap idea
: and would, if it were ever built, be the worst waste of infrastructure
: money in living memory. At least the Chunnel might be useful, one day.

: For that remark, you are sentenced to an eternity of travelling between
: Liverpool Street and Tottenham Court Road on the Central Line every
: morning peak hour.

Great. Let's spend rough enough money to electrify every main line in
the UK on relieving morning peak-hours congestion on a short length of
one London underground line. What a wonderful, sensible use of money.

: Seriously, nobody's suggesting (except, apparently, you) that Crossrail
: won't immediately attract massive ridership. The question is whether
: the benefits (pegged by several studies at somewhere between £10bn and
: £50bn)

Pegged? With a five-fold margin of error? That's not "pegged", that's
"wildly guessed." And not being able to predict the costs to within a
factor of two doesn't greatly inspire confidence either.

And it's not just me. You'll notice that every organisation asked to
stump up the cash has said "Erm, no".

It's a truly terrible idea.

Ian