Brimstone wrote:
Mrs Redboots wrote:
Richard J. wrote to uk.transport.london on Fri, 25 Mar 2005:


But IIRC the tidal rise and fall in Sydney is quite small. In
London it can be more than 7 metres.

Given that for centuries the river provided almost the *only*
public transport available in London, I rather suspect that this
is a problem which has been overcome in the past, and can be again.

Is it even a problem since boats are loading and unloading now?

Yes, but carrying relatively few passengers. This discussion is about
using the river for mass transit - many thousands of passengers per
hour. In comparison with trains, boats have very long dwell times,
partly because berthing at a pier takes longer than arriving at a
platform, and partly because it takes longer to embark/disembark. So to
get the capacity you'd have to provide many more pier berths than at
present, equivalent to having, say, 8 platforms at every tube stop.
Having 7-metre tides and strong currents means that berthing will be
even slower and it's more difficult to design such a pier for large
numbers of people.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)