A suggestion from Jim Blake elow. Is it feasible?

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/content/cam...2%3A52%3A78 0

Abandoned railway plan could be revived for Parkland Walk

09 August 2007
I WAS interested to read Ernie Nice's letter relating to the former
railway line between Alexandra Palace, Highgate and Finsbury Park. It
is indeed ridiculous that no-one in authority has taken seriously
proposals to revive this line in an effort to alleviate the appalling
traffic congestion - and poor public transport availability - in such
places as Muswell Hill and Crouch End.

What makes this perhaps the greatest blot on the history of London
Transport is the fact that the line should have become part of the
Northern Line in 1940, having originally been one of the Great
Northern Railway's suburban branches from King's Cross. Later
inherited by the London & North Eastern Railway, it was to become part
of an expanded Northern Line under London Transport's 1935-1940 New
Works Programme.

The Northern Line was extended in a new tunnel from its previous
Archway terminus, via a new tube station beneath the existing Highgate
station on the Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace line, to East
Finchley in July 1939. Here it joined the branch from Finsbury Park,
which divided at Highgate - one section going via Muswell Hill to
Alexandra Palace, the other continuing to East Finchley and then on to
Finchley Central (originally called Church End) and High Barnet.

The branch to High Barnet from East Finchley was added to the Northern
Line in April 1940. A second branch that went to Edgware via Mill Hill
from Finchley Central (Church End) should also have been part of the
Northern Line, and was extended as far as Mill Hill East in May 1941
to serve the army barracks there.

Sadly, the rest of the scheme, that is the line from Finsbury Park to
Highgate and Alexandra Palace, which was also to have been connected
to the isolated Moorgate to Finsbury Park tube line (known as the
Northern City Line and eventually taken over by British Railways Great
Northern electric services in 1976), and the section from Mill Hill
East to Edgware, along with a new extension further out to Bushey
Heath, was held "in abeyance" during the war.

Although London Transport fully intended to complete the project (even
announcing completion dates for 1948/49), all uncompleted sections
were abandoned in the early 1950s - the line to Alexandra Palace still
being served by antiquated steam trains until finally closed in July
1954.

What makes all this particularly absurd is that so much had already
been carried out before the war forced it to be suspended. Over three
million pounds' worth of work - at 1939 values - had been done on the
uncompleted sections, and that from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace
was virtually complete.

For instance, connecting ramps had been built to link the Northern
City tube line at Drayton Park with the LNER line into a new high-
level station at Finsbury Park. Much of the structure of the two new
platforms and facade in Station Place had been erected - its rusting
steel girders remaining as an eyesore until demolished in 1973. Most
of the conductor rails and lineside cabling had been installed
throughout the branch to permit electric running - indeed sub-stations
to supply the current were built and fully equipped at Crouch Hill and
Muswell Hill.

Most important of all, the existing Highgate station was completely
rebuilt in modern London Transport style, with new platform buildings
between the tunnels beside Archway Road, and a new booking office
beneath them to serve the interconnecting tube platforms below (as it
still does). A brand new station at East Finchley was also built with
four platforms, the two outer ones for tube trains running from High
Barnet or Edgware (via Mill Hill) to Central London and onwards to
Morden, the two inner ones for trains from High Barnet to Moorgate via
the line through Highgate and Finsbury Park.

Today, of course, these platforms are used only for training, running
to or from the Northern Line's Highgate Depot, which is situated where
the branch from Finsbury Park divided to go to Alexandra Palace or on
to East Finchley and Highgate Barnet.

Ironically the new platform buildings at Highgate - built for tube
trains but never served by them - remain intact today and could easily
be brought back into use.

Whether as a light rail system (as suggested by the Muswell Hill Metro
Group) or as something more ambitious - for instance an extension of
Ken Livingstone's Overground network that could be connected via
Canonbury tunnel with the North and East London lines, obviously the
so-called Parkland Walk (which more resembled a dogs' toilet and a
wilderness of stinging nettles when I last visited it a few months
ago!) should be used to restore this vital railway link, which also
could easily co-exist with a footpath and much of the present wildlife
habitat.

JIM BLAKE

Hon Chairman, North London Transport Society