On Fri, 14 Dec 2007, Peter Masson wrote:

"Dan G" wrote

I live in Reading and I don't want Crossrail to come here. Why? Because
Crossrail will be a stopper service. I want to catch an HST to
Paddington, overtaking the slow Crossrail trains past Maidenhead, and
then change for the ride into central London (or beyond). Taking it all
the way to Reading would increase the already sky-high cost and take
away capacity for other, more useful, trains for Reading.

If Crossrail is extended to Reading the Main (Fast) Lines will still be
available for 125 mph trains running non-stop (or possibly calling at
Slough) between Paddington and Reading. But if it terminates at
Maidenhead how are London to Twyford/Henley passengers

Hey, don't forget Marlow!

to be catered for, or passengers travelling to Reading from intermediate
stations? Will there be a Paddington - Reading stopping service
sandwiched between Crossrail trains (using capacity which really ought
to be kept for freight)? Or will passengers have to use Crossrail, and
change at Slough or Maidenhead for a shuttle service? Or will Main Line
capacity be used up with 90 mph trains calling at Slough, Maidenhead and
Twyford (perhaps crossing to the Relief Lines at Dolphin, Maidenhead
East or Ruscombe once the Crossrail service has thinned out - and the
crossing move eats capacity)?

Yes.

I suspect that demand for trips between Twyford and London, and between
Reading and stations on the way to London, is very small compared to the
demand further in along the line. Even if Crossrail could run to Reading,
i really doubt that the demand would justify more than a few tph. Doing
all the electrification work etc just for that seems daft. Might as well
interleave a few non-Crossrail Reading stoppers. Or couple a diesel loco
onto a few Crossrail trains at Maidenhead!

Actually, i'm skeptical about the value of extending beyond Slough,
really. Maidenhead has lots of demand, but would be better served by
stopping some fast trains, allowing Crossrail to focus on London.

Here are some passenger numbers (from Wikipedia, 2004/5 figures, millions
of entries and exits per year) for public amusement:

Reading 13.297
Twyford 1.083
Maidenhead 3.272
Taplow 0.149
Burnham 0.822
Slough 4.448
Langley 0.482
Iver 0.111
West Drayton 0.742
Hayes & H'ton 1.229
Southall 0.865
Hanwell 0.154
West Ealing 0.384
Ealing Broadway 6.307
Acton Main Line 0.115

I'm surprised how low some of the London ones are. I imagine this is due
to competition from the tube, which will change post-Crossrail. Will be
interesting to see.

While Crossrail can be justified as a stopping service within Greater
London, as Acton Main Line and Hanwell would undoubtedly get much more
use if they had a decent service) stopping all Maidenhead trains at Iver
and Taplow is daft, as in population terms these two stations at least
are in the middle of nowhere.

Where does Iver stand with respect to the Green Belt? Seems like somewhere
that's ideal for plonking down some of these hundreds of thousands of
houses we need. Ditto Taplow, i suppose.

tom

--
The most successful people are those who are good at plan B. --
James Yorke