On Mon, 29 Nov 2004, Angus Bryant wrote:

"Dave Arquati" wrote in message
...

The best solution, as I've said previously, would be to let
Crossrail 1 take over the slow lines (NOT the DC lines) on the WCML,
with cross platform interchange at Willesden Junction, and run
trains to Wolverton (Milton Keynes) and possibly Northampton. LU
would then take over the DC lines and run its trains to Euston, and
a freight route would be created from Willesden to the NLL.

If the Felixstowe-Nuneaton gauge enhancement project were completed
properly, then the amount of freight traffic on the NLL could be
reduced significantly.

I remember one plan postulated when the East-West Rail study was
commissioned a few years ago was to make Goblin the primary cross-London
freight line (with a new junction at Forest Gate and a new tunnel from
Gospel Oak to Primrose Hill)? Its advantages being that it avoids
freight clashing with Crossrail on the GE, and removes any freight
activity from the NLL (and WLL if you route Channel freight via the CTRL
at Dagenham). Any news on that plan?

TfL recently did a report called "Freight on rail in London":

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/rail/downloads/pdf/freight.pdf

They don't say too much about it - their emphasis being on the Felixtowe -
Nuneaton bypass - but they do say that the proposed port development at
Shellhaven, "cannot be supported without [...] upgrades to the Tottenham
and Hampstead Line and the Hampstead section of the North London Line at
some point.". 'Tottenham and Hampstead Line' is code (or even the
traditional name) for Goblin.

The East-West study you mention has the more involved idea of a 'freight
focused route':

http://www.sra.gov.uk/publications/g...03eastwest.pdf

And is more explicit, not to mention ambitious. The tunnel bit is about
bypassing the Hampstead Tunnel, which is clear to W8 gauge, not big enough
for heavy cargo.

They then go on to suggest, for a mere 215 million, a tunnel under the
Thames, so traffic from Kent can get up onto the GOBLin, thus relieving
all the south London lines and the WLL and Hounslow Loop.

Incidentally, that report puts the cost of a Wimbledon to Hackney route
(ie Chelsea-Hackney, aka Crossrail 2) at 5.3 bn, as opposed to 2.8 bn for
Crossrail 1 (although i think that's without the tunnel going as far as
Stratford, and without the entire Kent - oops, sorry, Docklands - branch).

tom

--
A is for Absinthe, for which I now thirst