On 24 Jul, 12:37, wrote:
Probably a good thing in hindsight. Now its still fairly green around
that area. If the tube had gone out that way it would have been
another few miles of urban sprawl. Though who knows, in a parallel
universe maybe its been built ... )

I'm in a mixed mind about that. I agree, it is still lovely and green
around here, but so is Elstree & Borehamwood, with a mainline
connection no less. The main utility of the extension would not be
through commuting, but local domestic journeys (e.g. I have family
around Colindale, Burnt Oak, Hendon, etc. that I don't see as much as
I probably should unless I drive as the bus journey from Bushey takes
too long). There was a quote by Frank Pick who claimed that they'd
like a nice rural (different?) stretch of line as it wouldn't increase
pressure on the central section. Really, they only really wanted the
line for the depot; the stations were pretty much an afterthought. On
a vaguely related note, when the Northern line gets upgraded they're
going to find themselves back in the 1930s again...namely they'll need
room for a lot more trains with no obvious contenders for stabling on
their existing route. They may well come to regret selling of the
Aldenham Bus facility (redeveloped from the Bomber Factory, itself
developed from the unused, abet completed, Bushey Heath Depot) in the
1990s yet. They may have to revert to the unfavoured alternatives such
as Mill Hill (aka. Copthall Sports Grounds) or Edgwarebury Park (aka.
Brockley Hill Station's site), so they'd both be quite good green
spaces fights), or expanding Highgate Depot by cutting down lots of
the trees in Highgate Wood (again, that'll be a nice political bit of
environmental fighting).

Anyway , the northern line has enough trouble coping with its length
as it is. Can you imagine the service if it had another 5 miles on
track bolted on north of edgware and perhaps the line from mill hill
east to edgware too?

Ironically, I think the extension wouldn't have increased loadings as
much as you'd think though, the Bushey services were to run via Mill
Hill & the Finchley branch, so I'd imagine most sane commuters would
have changed at Mill Hill Broadway/The Hale for the Midland Suburban
(Thameslink) services (so you might have even got Finchley commuters
heading contraflow if the Thameslink service was good enough). As is,
they generally drive to Elstree and Borehamwood or Watford anyway
(though I go via H&W).