Kev wrote:
OK I can counter that by saying that I live in Watford and if I want to
get to SW London I have to use the once hourly Southern service or
crawl all the way to Willesden on the Metro then use the WLL. I think
that should spend hundreds of millions putting platforms on the county
lines at Willesden. My journey would be so much easier but would it be
cost effective when there is an alternative.

It depends what the alternatives are. In the two cases I cited,
congestion in the central area is reduced and public transport becomes
a more attractive option, so there are benefits over and above simple
passenger numbers. You had claimed that there wouldn't be any current
journeys which would benefit from the ELLX; I just outlined a couple.

As a tax payer I have every right to be critical of something even if
it is agreed. If the ELLx is such a great idea why is the current ELL
so poorly used.

I don't recall anyone here claiming you didn't have that right! Some
of us are exercising our equally valid right to put forward another
opinion.

And I would disagree about the current ELL being poorly used; there are
always lots of people waiting for it at any time of day when I'm using
New Cross station. I used to use it regularly during the peaks when I
worked at Barbican (New Cross-Whitechapel-Barbican and back again) and
it was always full. Granted, not as full as the Northern Line, but you
often had to stand.

The ELLX probably won't be as immediately successful as Crossrail will
be, but IMHO it will offer a number of small benefits, not all of them
immediately and quantifiably measurable.

Patrick