On Sat, 23 Jun 2007, John Rowland wrote:

Offramp wrote:

I always thought it weird that it ran from the arsehole of East London
to Kew.

I still think it's weird that it heads in a straight line towards
Heathrow, but then veers away to some forgotten Surrey suburb without
providing any interchange with any lines that actually go to Heathrow.

Given that the line predates the airport, it's surely not strictly weird.
Annoying, yes.

So what could be done? The idea of a NLL - GWML - Central interchange
where the lines cross near Gypsy Corner has been mentioned here before. I
can't see it getting built except as part of a huge redevelopment of the
industrial estates into flats, though.

The Poplar curve links the NLL to the GWML just east of Acton Main Line;
with about a mile of electrification, it would be possible to actually
send trains from Willesden (from the NLL, but not Watford, sadly) to
Heathrow, although it would involve rather a lot of conflicting movements
with existing traffic on the line. Alternatively, some tracks and land
from the Acton goods yard could quite easily be used to provide a
segregated connection from the NLL to the Central line tracks that go to
Ealing Broadway, where people could change to Heathrow Connect. There's
room to build more roads for the goods trains; the Central's 12 peak tph
to Ealing Broadway should leave room for some NLL trains too. The only
losers would be all the people wanting to go towards Richmond rather than
Ealing.

Simplest of all, how about getting off at South Acton and walking less
than half a mile to Acton Town to get the Piccadilly? Again, there's a
great crossing of lines round here that would enable a useful interchange
to be built, and there's even some industrial land you could build it on
without knocking anyone's house down.

tom

--
All we need now is Jesus the Lord, fine corn liquor and the courage to
think the unthinkable.