On Wed, 24 Nov 2004, Dave Arquati wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Tue, 23 Nov 2004, Dave Arquati wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

"The second route would link Herts and Beds with Clapham Junction."

Beds is probably wrong, although it's very much up in the air. Herts
could get Crossrail 2 services; it depends if they decide to run any up
the Lea Valley line.

I hadn't heard about this idea (until i looked at your site,
obviously). It's pretty obvious - Stratford, Lea Valley Line (more or
less unused for passengers at the moment), Tottenham Hale, some set of
stations to the north (hopefully Stansted). Is it being seriously
considered? For some value of 'seriously' appropriate to the entirely
hypothetical Crossrail 2, of course.

It would seem sensible for Crossrail 2 to take over the "one" services
from Stratford to Stansted and Hertford East starting next year, and
enhance them - especially given the desire to regenerate the Lea Valley.
A direct service from Stansted to the rest of Central London would also
be a bonus, if Stansted is to be expanded.

Strongly agreed.

Of course, it would be yet another transport project which *just* misses
Hackney - after the ELL, stepping over the border into Dalston and then
fleeing to Islington, and the eternally promised but never delivered
prospect of Chelsea-Hackney.

This is, of course, all entirely hypothetical. A route to Barnet and
Finchley via the closed Crouch End branch line from Finsbury Park has
even been proposed.

Yes, because Finchley has such a shortage of rail links! And people in
Finsbury Park probably think trains are only a legend!

You know what really makes me want to cry? In Clapton, just up from where
i used to live, on the Upper Clapton Road, just before the corner shop
that's just down from the petrol station, there's a mural, presumably done
by local primary school children. It's charming, a really nice bit of twee
lefty local art/civicism stuff; it's virtually a regeneration area in its
own right. It's basically a painting of local life - tower blocks,
streets, parks, smiling, diverse Hackneyites, all that jazz. And you know
what's in the middle of it? A tube train. How they even knew what one
looked like escapes me.

Clapham Junction would almost definitely get Crossrail 2.

Almost? If it doesn't, someone's getting their legs broken.

Quite. I only said "almost" because with these things (and with
politicians), you never know with 100% certainty that something is
definite until, for example, you see passengers get on a Crossrail 2
train at Clapham Junction and get successfully delivered to King's
Cross...

!

Also, are they still going with this stupid tube gauge idea, or have they
seen sense?

Not sure about that. AIUI, the tube gauge route could include a useful
station at Piccadilly Circus which a mainline gauge route could not.
Then again, I don't think anyone's seriously proposing tube-gauge trains
to Stansted.

Oh, i don't know - if they take the Finsbury Park route down, they can
make it a spur on the Piccadilly, so people can go direct from Stansted to
Heathrow. That'll teach those air-travelling *******s a lesson!

It depends what branches they settle on and whether they think
Piccadilly Circus is a goal worth having for the sacrifice.

Is that a problem with mainline gauge per se, or with long platforms? It
seems hard to believe there isn't room for a mainline gauge station
anywhere in the area.

tom

--
Understand the world we're living in