On Thu, 4 Dec 2008, Andrew Heenan wrote:

"Roland Perry" wrote ...
Andrew Heenan remarked:
Not my area, and I wouldn't presume to guess.
But I am sure of one thing:
"Not Shenfield"

Bluff. Called.
[There's nowhere "slightly" further out than Shenfield that has the
capacity to turn the requisite number of trains]

Sneaky Pedant called:

1. I was not bluffing - I was expressing a view. Sorry about that.
2. When you quoted me, you chose to miss a key point:
"There are, of course, many options east of Liverpool Street, and a lot may
depend on who's in power come 2018."

I repeat, "Not my area, and I wouldn't presume to guess" - instead of trying
to be smart (and merely being smug) why not *use* your local knowledge to
see what other possibilities there are.

Warning: this may require an open mind and tad of imagination - do your
best.

Just imagine *you* are planning an East-West high capacity, high frequency
rail service, and you have a free choice of terminus, and go for it!

[tip: it is theoretically possible for More Than One to be used]

So please do enlighten us. And none of this "not my area" nonsense, please
- if you know enough to be certain that there are better options than
Shenfield, then you know enough to suggest some.

(And please don't tell me there's not one station on the Eastern that is
more appropiate than Shenfield - or I, and many others, will cease to
believe a word you say.)

Really? Who are these many others, and how do you know about them?

If Roland, or anyone else, wants to claim that no terminus is more
appropriate than Shenfield, and backs that up with reasoned arguments,
then the correct response is to consider those arguments. Dismissing them
out of hand is the act of someone driven by overwhelming affection for
their own opinions, not any interest in the truth.

As it happens, i also think there's no better option than Shenfield. The
GEML is four-track to Shenfield, and has two two-track branches beyond
that. That means you can run Crossrail as a stopping service to Shenfield
with one pair of tracks entirely to itself, and leave the other pair for
non-stop long-distance services, with no possibility of performance
pollution between the two. Running those Crossrail trains beyond Shenfield
supplies residents of those towns with a stopping service into London
which they simply won't use. Making some of the Crossrails non-stop on the
fasts to points beyond Shenfield, and filling in the deficit on the slow
lines with Liverpool Street-terminating trains, throws away the advantages
of segregation. Turning some of the Crossrails off short of Shenfield -
say up the West Anglia, to suburban destinations or Stansted, means taking
trains away from the stations towards Shenfield, which means a net
reduction in service on an already overcrowded line. So, we have one
useless option, one impractical one, and one actively harmful one.

I look forward to hearing your suggestion.

tom

--
I'm angry, but not Milk and Cheese angry. -- Mike Froggatt