John Rowland:
AFAIK the Picc is under the mainline from Kings Cross to Finsbury Park
inclusive. (Which is stupid, because it's obvious that they should have
built it under Caledonian Road...)

Clive Feather:
Putting it under the main line gives more room for necessary deviations
than trying to put it under the road. And the GNP&BR was in cahoots with
the GNR anyway (that's why it ended at Finsbury Park).

Who are you and what have you done with the real Clive Feather?

It was the *GN&SR* that was in cahoots with the GNR; that's why their
preferred routing, which Parliament approved, ran under the GNR from
King's Cross to *Wood Green*. Then the GNR lost interest in supporting
the GN&SR and it was bought up by Yerkes group, specifically the B&PCR,
eventually to be merged with it as the GNP&BR.

But it was a condition of that sale that the powers to build from
Finsbury Park to Wood Green *inclusive* be abandoned -- the GNR would
build and own the Finsbury Park terminus and retain a veto on northward
extension. In other words, the reason the GNP&BR ended at Finsbury Park
was that it was *no longer* in cahoots with the GNR.

(This is also why the GN&CR ended at Finsbury Park, when that was its name.)
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "When I wanted to be a sigquote, that wasn't
| the one I was thinking of." --Clive Feather

My text in this article is in the public domain.