"James Farrar" wrote in message

On Mon, 5 May 2008 11:27:01 +0100, "John Rowland"
wrote:

Paul Scott wrote:

Perhaps what they could have done was switched the running lines
lh/rh on the surface somewhere so that all trains could run to T123
first, and then use the T4 loop the other way round, or go to T5.

I suggested on this newsgroup 4 years ago that the existing flyover
at Northfields could have been used to do exactly that...

I thought this had already been proposed here, and every time I catch
a Heathrow train (and that's quite often!)

That way, trains could have had destinations of simply T4 or T5 and
stations all the way from Cockfosters could have "all Heathrow trains
call at T123".

Could they still find a way to reverse the loop direction with
overnight engineering or a relatively short closure?

Can anti-clockwise running trains from the T4 loop get into the
eastbound platform at Hatton Cross (ie, with a crossover at the west end
of the station)? If so, then it might be workable if the frequency is
low enough for a flat crossing to work. Does anyone know why they
didn't adopt this obvious solution? It must have been considered and
rejected.