On Wed, 10 Oct 2007, Mizter T wrote:

On 10 Oct, 06:03, Tom Anderson wrote:
On Tue, 9 Oct 2007, lonelytraveller wrote:

I thought the NLL was being cannibalised - the north and west bits to
Dalston for Orbirail (including the far north bit of the ELL
extension), the middle bits from Dalston for the Chelsea-Hackney line,
and the far east bits beyond Stratford for the DLR?

The bit beyond Stratford has indeed gone to the DLR. The NLL is itself
part of the Orbirail plan (i hate that name), rather than being a
victim of it. There was a suggestion in 1995 for a cheapo Chelney that
would assimilate the NLL to Stratford, but that never got any further
than a line on a map - and recently, the safeguarding on the 1991
route, which is in tube all the way to Leytonstone, was renewed. If
Chelsea-Hackney ever does get built, it seems unlikely that it'll be
using the NLL (although who can say, really). Moreover, the NLL as it
stands is increasingly popular, for some reason, and i can't see it
getting broken up in any way - quite the opposite, more trains,
services extended to more remote destinations, etc.

The NLL is popular because it takes people where they want to go,

Yes, but where are they going, and why are they going there?

and does it better than other means (despite the filthy nature of the
trains). I still can't quite understand you're dislike for orbital rail
routes, especially given that they are liked by large numbers of the
travelling public.

"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can't trust people."

I don't dislike orbital rail routes - i even use them myself from time to
time, although of course i wear a false beard when i do so, so people
don't recognise me. My irritation stems from a preoccupation with orbital
routes that occasionally strikes some people. Yes, the NLL is busy, and
the demand would fill more and longer trains - but most of the radial
routes have vastly more demand, and are overcrowded despite having ten
times the capacity, so to talk about orbital routes as if they were the
most important thing is bonkers. Focusing attention and money on the ELL
extension, say, diverts it from problems which really are more
significant. Yes, i realise that much of the attraction of orbital routes
at the moment is the fact that they can be significantly improved for very
little money by linking things up and running more trains, but let's just
remember they're the low-hanging fruit, not the top banana.

tom

--
NO REAL THAN YOU ARE -- The Zandvoort Man