On Wed, 9 May 2007, MIG wrote:

On May 9, 7:11 pm, Tom Anderson wrote:

I was wondering, as i was sat on it this morning, whether it would be
possible to construct a connector between the Bank and CX branches
around about Euston, so that they could act as two arms of a loop, with
trains running Kennington - Bank - Euston - Charing Cross - Kennington
and vice versa. Based on what you say, perhaps not.

For the clockwise route, drive a tunnel from the northbound Charing
Cross branch some way south of the platform, drop down to the level
between the two branches, run along under the branch, then dive to join
the southbound Bank branch just 'north' of the platform, perhaps
exploiting the old northbound alignment. For the anticlockwise route,
start your tunnel from the northbound Bank branch at what remains of
the northbound alignment, and is now a reversing siding, to the 'south'
of the platforms; climb over the southbound Bank platform, turn north,
and loop round to join the southbound Charing Cross branch just north
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
of its platform. Provided there's as much vertical separation between
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
the branches as i hope there is, and provided there's nothing awkward
underground to the north of the Bank branch platforms (er, Euston
station itself?), this would avoid some of the major complaints - all
trains to Bank and Charing Cross would go from the same platform
(IYSWIM), and there would be enough track in 'limbo' between the main
routes of the branches to hold a train or two, so helping avoid
head-of-line blocking - rendering this idea merely bad, rather than
terrible.

Wouldn't that mean two separate platforms for trains to Charing Cross
though, depending on whether looping or coming from Camden?

No - see highlighted bit above.

tom

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