"Dave" wrote:

A decision on whether to extend the £16billion Crossrail scheme to Reading
will be made in the New Year, it emerged today...

Good news that they're giving this question a second thought. I
suspect, however, that even if they decided to stick with Maidenhead
for the initial development, the case to extend to Reading
subsequently would be so compelling that it'd happen one way or the
other anyway.

I think sometimes it's better to start off with a finite, achieveable
project even if the case for bigger things seems powerful. Because
one thing often does lead to the next. The example I always think of
is Bed-Pan electrification - as soon as that was done a strong
business case for the original Thameslink project emerged.

The other extension to Crossrail that seems fairly obvious to me is to
extend the trains currently planned to terminate at Paddington up the
former GW&GC joint line. Bring the Old Oak - Northolt East line back
into proper use, rebuild the main line platforms at Greenford, making
this the first stop out of Padd, then run all-stations to Princes
Risboro and Aylesbury (some trains probably terminating at High
Wycombe). But this is clearly too extensive to be sensible to include
in the initial project.

Adie