On 19 Jan, 01:10, Mizter T wrote:

On 18 Jan, 22:36, (Neil Williams)
wrote:

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:25:23 -0800 (PST), wrote:
Better still, use DMUs and run it through to Aylesbury!

That'd be a seriously useful service, and would get a lot of the
benefits of Aylesbury-Bletchley for very little of the additional
cost.

Indeed, a very interesting idea - has this ever been mooted before
because it's the first time I've heard of such a notion?


Silly me, thinking that it was possible no-one had really suggested
this already! The Wikipedia article makes plenty of mention of it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croxley_Rail_Link

I'm evidently just not that imaginative to have thought about it
already. A potential through service from Aylesbury is surely *the*
selling point of this link, is it not? I could never get myself that
excited about it beforehand, as I didn't think the benefits of there
being 'more Met line' at Watford really made the whole thing seem that
worthwhile, but as part of a wider service the proposed Croxley link
starts to look rather more attractive.

Mizter T wrote:

I'm evidently just not that imaginative to have thought about it
already. A potential through service from Aylesbury is surely *the*
selling point of this link, is it not? I could never get myself that
excited about it beforehand, as I didn't think the benefits of there
being 'more Met line' at Watford really made the whole thing seem that
worthwhile, but as part of a wider service the proposed Croxley link
starts to look rather more attractive.

I was under the impression the plan was to make two obscure back-water
suburban stub branches into a through root and make the town of Watford more
accessible from the Met. The Aylesbury link hasn't been mentioned that
often.

On Jan 19, 2:40*am, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:
Mizter T wrote:
I'm evidently just not that imaginative to have thought about it
already. A potential through service from Aylesbury is surely *the*
selling point of this link, is it not? I could never get myself that
excited about it beforehand, as I didn't think the benefits of there
being 'more Met line' at Watford really made the whole thing seem that
worthwhile, but as part of a wider service the proposed Croxley link
starts to look rather more attractive.

I was under the impression the plan was to make two obscure back-water
suburban stub branches into a through root and make the town of Watford more
accessible from the Met. The Aylesbury link hasn't been mentioned that
often.

Much more was made of the Watford - Aylesbury service when the link
was being talked up in the 80s and 90s. There were also some grandious
proposals for an Aylesbury to St. Albans service involving a flyover
(or dive under) at Watford Junction. Back then, the plan was supposed
to be self-financing as the sale of the Watford Met branch for housing
would pay for the new alignment.