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| Re: London's five-year plan (11242) | |||
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Re: London's five-year plan |
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Posted by Fytton on Fri Oct 22 05:22:22 2004, in response to Re: London's five-year plan, posted by Max Roberts on Fri Oct 22 05:00:54 2004. "I suspect. Fytton can help, but my guess that Luton to Brighton passengers outweigh Mill Hill to Sutton passengers considerably."You are probably right about that. It all hinges, of course, on trains going to useful destinations. Most suburban lines have purely residential areas at their outer ends, and thus linking them across city centres doesn't generate much cross-city traffic. Having airports or seaside resorts at the end, of course *does* generate cross-city traffic. I am sure RER line C gets lots of people from south of the city going to CDG airport. Thameslink is a good example of a cross-city route that is actually useful. I grew up in Brighton in pre-Thameslink days, in a family without a car. The biggest bane of our travel was having to take all our luggage off a train at Victoria, get on to the Underground (in pre-Victoria Line days too, so another change at Embankment) and across to one of the northern termini (Euston, Kings X, St Pancras) to get to anywhere north of London. Nowadays, probably the most useful feature of Thameslink is to get people to Gatwick Airport from north of London and to Luton Airport from south of London. By connecting at Bedford, Luton or Luton Airport stations, passengers from everywhere on the Midland Mainline system can get to Gatwick without having to use the tube to cross London. On the other hand, lots of people get off suburban commuter trains at a big-city terminus and get on to the tube for a short journey within the CBD. Cross-city services like the RER can reduce that. Not many people from Luton ride to Wimbledon, it's true, but lots go to Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars or London Bridge, avoiding the need to use the tube. The most useful feature of CrossRail will probably be to give people from the suburban lines running out of Paddington a direct line to the heart of the West End and the City, and people from the Shenfield line direct services to the West End. Much as I love the tube, at the peak of the peak the Thameslink is much pleasanter to ride on than the tube, and CrossRail would be pleasanter than the Central Line! Whether it's worth all that money is another question. |
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