On Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Mr Thant wrote:

On 28 Dec, 09:57, "Paul Scott" wrote:

Could they not just transfer that bit back to the District line using a few
more of the new S stock to provide the traction, and up the Picc frequency
to Heathrow?

But then you'd have to take trains away from the other District
branches, or find more capacity further east. Rumour is that the
District Ealing Broadway and Piccadilly Uxbridge branches will swap over
at some point, but I don't think this plan has any official status.

New to me.

There's been a plan hanging around for decades now for a couple of miles
of tunnel from Shepherd's Bush to Turnham Green, by means of which the
Central line could take over the Richmond branch of the District. There
was a matching plan for another 2.5 mile tunnel from Queen's Park to North
Acton, by which the Bakerloo could take over the Ealing Broadway branch of
the Central. You reduce the District by one branch, increase the Bakerloo
by one, and keep the Central at two, although they're different.

The clever bit about the Bakerloo tunnel is that it allows trains that
would otherwise have to reverse at Queen's Park to go somewhere; if the
plan to reorganise the DC lines comes to pass, so that all Bakerloo trains
can go beyond Queen's Park, with NR trains (from the Overground)
terminating there, this becomes a less good plan. The not so clever bit is
that the reasonably direct Central line route into town from Ealing
Broadway gets replaced by a rather round-the-houses Bakerloo one. Although
post-DC-reshuffle, that tunnel, arranged slightly differently, might
actually be a rather clever way of extending the Overground from Queen's
Park to Ealing Broadway, bringing an orbital route to a major interchange
(which by then will have Crossrail, and so less need for a Central line
branch).

A variant of that i dreamed up is to ditch the tunnels, and just build a
couple of flying junctions to transfer the Richmond branch to the
Piccadilly at Chiswick Park, and the Uxbridge branch to the Central at
Park Royal, with the Ealing Broadway branch just closing post-Crossrail.
Doesn't really help Heathrow, though.

tom

--
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