On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 10:46:40 +0100, Dave Arquati wrote:

Listening to some commentary on the radio last night it was stated that
running trains from Dalston Junc to Highbury is going to cost £400M.
Bearing in mind that all that needs to be done on the face of it is
reinstate a few hundred yards of track what is going to cost half a
Wembley Stadium of half a Dome.

Not what I heard - the following parliamentary debate suggests £200m for
the northern part of (what was) Phase 2 - Dalston Junction to Caledonian
Road & Barnsbury. That includes turnback facilities at CR&B, possibly
extra tracks somewhere between there and Dalston, the reinstated curve
at Dalston, a replacement junction on the NLL (obviously the old one
isn't there any more) and probably some resignalling.

Then again, reinstating a significantly longer section of track in south
London and building a new station at Surrey Canal Road seems to cost
much less (£75m), so I'm not sure what difference is for. Is the
formation at Dalston still in Network Rail's hands?

Perhaps not: the property listing section of the British Railways
Board (Residuary) website (see http://www.brb.gov.uk/property)
suggests that the west curve at Dalston may have been sold off.

http://www.brb.gov.uk/property/prope...ounty=l&page=3

"Dalston Junction: Western Junction closed line: Sold"