"asdf" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 16:54:34 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote:

....... - Crossrail has unlike Thameslink not been designed as an
equivalent RER but merely a full gauge fast tube.- Hide quoted text -

I'm not sure this view is correct. Surely the way Crossrail trains will
be sharing tracks on existing routes to Maidenhead, Shenfield and Abbey
Wood, is just like Thameslink; the only main difference is their central
London tunnel will be new, not secondhand...

AIUI, there won't be a huge amount of track-sharing. Crossrail gets
exclusive use of the slow tracks on the GWML, although it'll share with
HEx from Airport Junction to Heathrow Central.

What happens to GWML freight? Surely it won't use the fast lines -
will it all be sent round via Staines?

I got the same idea as Tom from various press reports. They are wrong. I
don't know what will happen to freight but, at the very least, I expect the
Mendip stone trains to continue. There will also be a two train per hour
service Reading/Twyford/Maidenhead/Slough/Hayes/Ealing/Paddington and
another two trains all stations Reading to Slough according to recent
letters in the Maidenhead Advertiser. The Greenford service will be
reduced to a shuttle from West Ealing.