Tom Anderson wrote:

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004, Aidan Stanger wrote:

Nitro wrote:

From King's Cross the line would continue to Dalston Junction station
and Hackney Central station.

Do you mean Hackney Downs?

Comes to much the same thing - they're only a paving-slab's-toss apart.

On the map, but have you ever tried walking from one to the other?

The line would then surface near Clapton, or if this is not possible
an underground station at Clapton. Some trains would then continue to
Chingford,

Although you're not the first to suggest a Crossrail line take over the
Chingford branch, it doesn't seem such a good idea to me. The loss of a
direct service to the City would be very unpopular with many people who
moved to the area because of its good links to the City.

Okay, Crossrail Three And A Half:

Take over the Chingford branch, or even the entire suburban West Anglia;
get as far as the current Bethnal Green station (which should be closed
with extreme prejudice,

What have you got against Bethnal Green station? Would it be any
different if it and the station on the Central Line had different names?

and replaced with one over the road from, and
joined by a tunnel to, the Central Line station of the same name - hey
look, now you can get from northeast London to the Central Line without
interchanging at Liverpool Street!),

You could do that better if there were more trains to Stratford from the
North.

then dive and go underground to
Liverpool Street (where cross-platform interchange with the Central line
would be lovely, but almost certainly entirely impossible), possibly with
a new stop somewhere around Shoreditch, then carry on to Moorgate
(probably, nay hopefully, demolishing some - frankly very ugly - office
buildings on the way) and take over the Widened Lines (which by now have
been given up by Thameslink due to the platform lengthening at
Farringdon); just before Farringdon, veer off into a new bit of tunnel to
King's Cross (yes, that makes a grand total of three parallel tracks
between Farringdon and King's Cross), and thence follow whatever route
Nitro proposed, or just go crazy and tunnel to Cork or something.

More direct routes are usually better.

Note that i know **** all about the technical aspects of railways, and
have thought of this off the top of my head, so sorry if it's a bit silly.

It is, but silly ideas can be developed into sensible ones.
Sensible ideas can also be developed into silly ones, as can be seen at
http://www.crossrail.co.uk.


-- ... to build a space elevator, that's got to be hundreds of thousands
of pounds ... -- Mike Froggatt

Who's Mike Froggatt?