On Oct 26, 9:17*pm, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:09:06 -0700 (PDT), TheOneKEA

wrote:
There is also the fact that the WLL is still a good cross-London link
between the former Southern Region and the former Western and London
Midland (:P) Regions. Just because there's no XC link right now
doesn't mean that a new service, serving Shepherd's Bush, won't be
eventually restored.

Even now, the link from MKC to Clapham Jn and beyond is *very* heavily
used. *While there would be an issue with making the LO service 8
cars, the Southern one could easily be made so given a few units, had
the short-sighted decision to build a 4-car platform at Imperial Wharf
not been made.

The real issue is platforms 16 and 17 at CLJ. SDO can't be used with
the sort of loadings these trains experience, but straightening and
lengthening the platforms won't happen any time soon.

That said, given that said service is mainly about linking the WCML to
the SWML, it could I suppose be extended to 8 then not stop at
Imperial Wharf. * How long is the platform at Shepherd's Bush?

4! Same at West Brompton. I think the assumption has been made that
CLJ 16 and 17 will never be sorted out, so why bother when LOROL will
be a 4-car max railway forever more?

I suppose Platform 17 at Clapham is also short, but if that was a
problem it could terminate there and use 2 or a reinstated 1 instead.
Or is 16 long enough, if a crossover was to be installed?

Cross-Clapham traffic is heavy and interchange facilities on those
platforms are grossly inadequate. If the infrastructure is ever
modified to allow 8-car trains, it could then be sensible to run them
south of East Croydon once again.

In the short term I would prefer 2 tph of ECR-WFJ rather than 1 of ECR-
MKC, although the benefits would be greater if VT bothered to stop
more than 1 tph at WFJ.