On 20 Jan, 00:18, John B wrote:

On Jan 19, 11:17*pm, Mizter T wrote:

Anyway don't think anyone's got any money for stuff like this at the
moment... unless that ghost of Keynes who's been hovering around
somewhat lately starts visiting Brown & co in their dreams in
earnest...

The DfT seem to have magiced £54 millon extra for the four tracking at
Camden Road from somewhere

The NLL upgrade was agreed a while back before the Treasury realised
that the dour and miserly bankers at RBS has taken magic mushrooms
before making their investment decisions. Also the NLL upgrade around
Camden was reduced in scope anyway, when it was realised that some of
the works would cost too much.

And then re-scoped back up, possibly following a visit from the ghost
of Keynes.

I had totally missed this. Still not quite sure if it's Keynes the
'pump-primer' that would be behind this - works would commence in the
summer of 2012, and it would be quite nice if we weren't still doing
the global hyper-crash thing by that time, it might have got a bit
tiresome by then. I dare say that the increased container traffic
coming from the new London Gateway port that might be a considerable
driver here - though the port is apparently to open by 2011, and the
NLL four-tracking works would not be finished until 2014, so maybe I'm
wrong.


If there is any money emanating from the DfT any time soon then I
would very much hope it is for making phase 2 of the East London Line
Extension happen - apparently the funding gap is £15 million, which is
not a great deal in the grand scheme of things with regards to rail
projects. But time is running out - I think the costings all revolve
around the current ELLX construction venture continuing on to build
phase 2. I think it would cost significantly more to set it all up
again from a cold start.

They've got a good couple of years before the current venture comes to
an end - remember the northern part of Phase II (as was) is now part
of Phase I, but won't be built until (mumble shortly before Olympics
mumble).

2011 for the northern part you mention (the 'Dalston link'). AIUI it's
all intricately connected up with the NLL upgrade works, as
essentially the NLL will be moving to a new northern pair of tracks
(one of which doesn't even exist at the mo) whilst the ELLX will have
exclusive use of the southern pair between Dalston Junction and
Highbury & Islington (well actually a point between High & I and
Barnsbury & Caledonian Rd).

However I think you're really being rather optimistically generous in
the relaxed time scale you give - the works south of the river will be
finished by summer 2010, and quite possibly before that. There is
currently a large works depot that's been established in the 'Silwood
Triangle' just south of Surrey Quays station which AFAICS won't be of
much help whatsoever when it comes to the works between Dalston and
Highbury & Islington. I can't see much call for the depot at Silwood
to service these northern works - well, maybe the project offices
might stay, but it'd be quite some way away from the action so it
doesn't seem that likely.

The Silwood Triangle depot is however the perfect base from which to
construct the new link with the existing South London Line (albeit
along a long closed alignment) - it's something like a mile and a half
of railway, if that. Everything is basically already set up and ready
to go, but if the Silwood works depot hasn't got anything left to do
it will obviously wind down and pack up shop. AFAICS the only other
significant bit of work south of the river for phase 2 would be that
of re-establishing platform 1 at Clapham Junction, which I believe
will require some renovation work.

So the BBCJV enterprise that's constructing the ELLX will indeed still
be around after the line to Dalston Jn opens in order to finish the
extra works up in that neck of the woods (though I'm not quite sure to
what extent they'll be responsible for works on the NLL alignment),
but they will likely have closed down the Silwood works depot by that
point. In a project as cost concious as phase 2 will have to be, the
sheer cost of re-establishing that base of operations would seem
likely to be a knock-out blow - which is why time is of the essence...


On the original Croxley point, there was an expectation/plan that TfL
would chip in for the benefit of the reasonably sizeable number of
people who live in Greater-London-Metroland but work in Watford.

OK, that makes sense.