On Thu, 18 Oct 2007, Richard J. wrote:
Tom Anderson wrote:
On Thu, 18 Oct 2007, Colin McKenzie wrote:
A Hammersmith MP writes (in a circular email):
I believe there should be an additional station on the Crossrail
line at Old Oak to interchange with the West London Line. It is
technically possible to build this, but the economic case will
depend on the success of the Overground system.
I agree an extra station would be beneficial, but I think it should
interchange with the North London Line. New platforms could be
built on that line to interchange with Crossrail at one end and
the Central Line at the other end.
This location is known as Acton Wells, incidentally - Acton Wells
Junction is where the Dudden Hill freight branch and the curve from
the GWML join the NLL, where it crosses the Central and the
Paddington - Chiltern line.
Yes, and any station that links to both the GWML/Crossrail and the Central
Line would be in the middle of Acton Wells Junction, a vital node on the
London freight network, which also has links to the WCML and the WLL. You
would have to build a new bridge across the Central/Chiltern lines and
separate the freight traffic, thus making it more difficult to justify the
cost/benefit.
You might, you might not. The Hounslow Crossrail proposal i linked to
concluded that there was enough capacity for Crossrail to run through
there; they weren't talking about a station, but they were talking about a
lot of trains.
The West London line already interchanges with the Central Line at
Shepherds Bush, so my suggestion would give more new travel
options. What do the assembled experts think?
It's been brought up about a billion times, and i think everyone likes
it from a connectivity point of view, but we have a hard time
justifying it in raw benefit-cost ratio (not that we've done the
maths). There are potential operating cost savings in it if it meant
you could close North Acton (definitely) and Acton Main Line
(possibly).
Acton Main Line is much closer to the centre of Acton than Acton Wells, so
closure of AML would be extremely unpopular.
Fair enough.
You could only close North Acton if there was equivalent platform
accommodation at Acton Wells, which looks doubtful.
Sorry, i'm not familiar with the term "platform accomodation" - this is
presumably not about bunk-beds behind the gateline?
When the campaign group PROgress Alliance launched a petition* about
this on the PM's site (which attracted just 50 signatures, 1% of their
target), they hijacked a photo of mine without permission to illustrate
the site, their copy of which is at
http://bp1.blogger.com/_plHFyAJszvA/.../DSCN1210w.jpg
That's in the Hounslow proposal too!
Incidentally, there was an idea to build a link through the depot
around there to run down to Richmond:
http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/crossrail.pdf
That was the "Corridor 7" proposal to run a relatively low-cost branch
to Hounslow (NOT Richmond)
Oops, my mistake.
via a link through Old Oak Common depot on to the NLL, then from South
Acton on to the Hounslow Loop using an existing freight link. It would
have made better use of some of the (up to) 14 trains per hour that are
planned to reverse at Paddington. It would have provided a connection
between Crossrail and the NLL at Acton Central.
Yes. Presumably, it would have been possible to run trains to Richmond
too, no? Although only if you deleted District line trains to release
paths, probably.
I like the Hounslow plan, too. Could perhaps synergise well with AirTrack!
Have there been any proposals to turn the rubbish branch from the GWML to
Brentford into a passenger route? It's mostly single-track, but it looks
like there's room to (re?)double it. To link it to the Brentford Loop,
you'd have to demolish a carpark and one of the buildings of the Brentford
Executive Centre. And put a bridge in the Great West Road. I don't know
what you'd use it for, though - the route runs almost entirely through
open ground. Freight? Could be useful for west-to-southeast (and
vice versa) traffic, but i don't know if there's much of that, and we
should get a freight tunnel under the Thames in the east some time in the
next 50 years which would make it redundant.
Looking at aerial photos, it's clear that the alignment once went beyond
where it ends today, at least as far as the Augustus Close bridge over the
Brent:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl...3,0.00324&z=19
Where did it end up? A few hundred metres on, at Brentford docks?
Presumably there wasn't a bridge over the Thames that's since been lost ...
tom
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