On Sat, 22 Dec 2007, Stuart wrote:

MIG wrote:

My objection would not be how long it takes, but that it's the wrong
project. I don't understand why an orbital railway is such an
important goal. Well, I do. It's a way for a politician to make his
mark an a more obvious way than any general improvement in transport.

An orbital route might be a nice to have, but only in addition to the
radial routes, not replacing them.

An orbital route is a very good thing to have. London is teaming with
radial transport,

Yes, but there *still* *isn't* *enough*! Look at where the most
overcrowded lines go - they're all radial!

there's very little that goes round!

Because there are very few people who go round.

I'm not saying there's no use for orbital services - quite clearly, there
is, and i look forward to the NLL having a frequency and last train time
which make it a viable option for me to travel between my friends in
Kilburn and Camden and my house in Islington instead of taking a tube via
the middle of town. But the simple fact is that the vast majority of the
demand is for radial travel, not orbital. We could, and in fact we will,
argue about how much the demand follows the existing provision until the
cows come home, but that's the situation now, and the situation that needs
addressing.

I should declare, to fend off counter-anti-orbitalist outrage, that i'm in
favour of the ELL and its X. It's pretty cheap, and the station at
Shoreditch High Street is close enough to the City that it functions as a
semi-radial line, so it will be a very useful commuting link for the inner
suburbs, as well as being a handy way to dodge between north- and
south-eastern suburbs. Indeed, when it opens up, i may even ask out that
nice girl who lives in Bexleyheath ...

The North London Line as it is at the moment is too infrequent and
passes too many radial tube lines without connecting to them

Agreed, but i'm not aware of any plans to do anything about the latter.

tom

--
Ten years on, and there is still nothing like this bizarre tale of
biomechanical space madness.