Mizter T wrote:
Dave Arquati wrote:

This time it's Maryland - CLRL held discussions with LB Newham earlier
in the year, and have now decided that Crossrail trains can serve
Maryland with selective door opening (I imagine that this means the
front 8 carriages only).


Great, that'll make it easy to get to Chesapeake Bay...

Naff jokes aside, that's good news. Plus, given that the plan was for
some extra non-Crossrail local trains which were going to stop at
Maryland whilst sharing the Great Eastern slow line with Crossrail (and
terminate or start from Liverpool Street proper), there was the
potential operational issue of Crossrail trains getting backed up
behind these extra trains whilst they stopped at Maryland. That won't
be an issue now.

So - the 20 billion pound sterling question Mr Arquati - do you think
this railway line will ever get built, and if so when? I know the
Crossrail Bill is making progress, but someone needs to get their
wallet out and agree to pay for it.

(I forsee civil servants concocting various horrible potential PPP/PFI
arrangements!).

My not-yet-professional feeling is "yes, but...". It'll get built if
someone can arrange some sort of land value capture to pay for it (a
tool which, AIUI, could have paid for much of the Jubilee line
extension). There was a proposed business levy, but that would only have
paid for a small chunk of the total bill.

Some of the professors from my department are much more sceptical about
it even being built, and it's hard to blame them...

I certainly don't see work starting on it before the Olympics, so I'd go
for a 2018 (optimistic!) ETA...

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London