Adrian the Rock wrote:
"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.

Big benefit of Crossrail is not having to change at current termini.
If you're far enough out, it's better to get a fast train to the
terminus and change anyway.

I hope the principle that Crossrail should be all-stations has been
established.

For journeys to/from London, this means Maidenhead is probably about
right. Reading is a big traffic-generator, and if it wants to fund the
extension, no problem.

If any trains are extended to Reading, though, I'd say it should be
the Heathrow ones, not the Maidenhead ones.

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

There should certainly be an extension along this line one day. But
possibly only as far as High Wycombe - Princes Risborough at most.
Aylesbury is on the wrong branch.

The principle of an all-stations service stands, so you'd need to give
serious thought to reallocating the Central Line tracks beyond about
Greenford. First stop out of Paddington should be North Acton, then
the new Park Royal interchange.

Capacity between Paddington and Old Oak Junction is a problem.

But this is clearly too extensive to be sensible to include
in the initial project.

Agreed. Let's get the central tunnel built first.

Colin McKenzie

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