"Ronnie Clark" rve.co.uk
wrote in message ...

"Jack Taylor" wrote in message
...

From over fifteen years commuting experience on the line, my feelings
are
the opposite. I strongly feel that the solution should be for LUL to
operate
the Uxbridge and Watford (Junction, ASAP) branches, with the current
fast
lines to Amersham and beyond transferred to Network Rail control, where
they
can be upgraded to proper main line standards of minimum 75mph, as
opposed
to the present stagger. The two systems would then be entirely
segregated.

Being a loyal Great Central man myself, I would love to see faster
services
to Aylesbury. I've only done the return trip once (and that was very
recently) from Aylesbury to Marylebone and it did seem a shame that this
once-main-line had become a LUL backwater in places. Only south of Harrow
did it feel like we were actually moving again.

fantasia

It would be nice to see Chiltern Rail continue to invest in their lines,
as
they have in the past, and create the oft spoken of "Aylesbury North" as
well as faster trains to London. Perhaps even go further north of
Aylesbury - a regular service to the Bucks Rail Centre would be nice, even
though it's unlikely to ever pay its way.

Having read the replies, I'm coming round to the view that transferring the
Met Amersham services to Chiltern may be the best answer, giving possibly
complete segregation of NR and LUL services. The West Hampstead interchange
would be a prerequisite, to give Amersham passengers easy routes to the
City. Even with the stop at West Hampstead, resignalling could allow a
robust service of around 18 tph south of Neasden (say 10 from the Wycombe
route and 8 from the Amersham/ Aylesbury route) (for it to be robust, the
signalling would have to allow 2.5 min headways for trains stopping at West
Hampstead).

There may, in this scenario, be a case for keeping Rickmansworth to Chesham
electrified, to serve Chesham with a shuttle to Watford Junction via the
Croxley link, but also allowing same platform interchange at Chalfont with
Marylebone - Amersham/Aylesbury trains.

Peter