On Mon, 21 Jan 2008, Jamie Thompson wrote:

I was looking at the South London options for developing the network
the other day, and it seems to me that the Hayes branch is pretty much
the only option for the DLR, so it should probably go to that, with
the Bakerloo going elsewhere,

A better option for the DLR is not to go any further at all. The DLR is an
excellent short-distance transport system, but it's too slow and
low-capacity to be a sensible thing to send great distances. It's a bus on
steroids (or a tram on a pie and mash diet), not a substitute for a real
railway.

though going through Lewisham is probably still a good idea. It'd be a
bit unbalanced though, so extending the Stratford branch up the Lee
valley or taking over some of the metro services of the GEML might prove
beneficial....and if it all gets too busy for a DLR-style service...it
can always be upgraded; after all, the hard work comes from securing the
basic alignments.

The beauty of the DLR is that you can build it on alignments that wouldn't
take a heavy rail route; that means it's not necessarily a useful
pathfinder for subsequent upgrading. Of course, if you take alignments and
build bridges and tunnels with this in mind, you can do it, but it means
throwing away much of the cost advantage of the DLR.

My current favourite implausible scheme involves somehow (magic?) putting
tunnels in in the City that let Metropolitan (and District?) trains which
currently terminate at Aldgate (or Tower Hill) carry on to the east,
perhaps Canary Wharf, Lewisham and points south.

tom

--
It is a laborious madness, and an impoverishing one, the madness of
composing vast books. -- Jorge Luis Borges