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| Re: 93 NEW PHOTOS of the London Underground and National Rail (Was: Cockfosters) (366490) | |||
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Re: 93 NEW PHOTOS of the London Underground and National Rail (Was: Cockfosters) |
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Posted by Rail Blue on Tue Jan 9 12:40:32 2007, in response to Re: 93 NEW PHOTOS of the London Underground and National Rail (Was: Cockfosters), posted by Max Roberts on Tue Jan 9 09:19:28 2007. Although there obviously is a market for fast trains from Birmingham southwards, most of these people want to go to London, don't want to go to places easily reached from Olympia, and don't want to go to Brighton.There is a separate market for trains to Brighton. The Sussex Coast conurbation has a population of around 480,000 (that's larger than the conurbations of Edinburgh, Portsmouth, Leicester, Bournemouth, and Reading, and only 70,000 smaller than Bristol) - this is a significant growing urban area and clearly merits InterCity CrossCountry service. The main hub of the InterCity network *has* to be Birmingham: London is far too schizoid to be of much use to journeys which aren't London-centric. And of course these journeys more than any others need to be via a reasonable, fast route. The most reasonable, fastest route in the case of Birmingham to Brighton (and for that matter, less important routes like Liverpool to Brighton and Manchester to Brighton) is via the WCML and WLL. Those people who do want to head south are better catered for by a through route from Euston to Victoria. Not if it involves commuter loadings out of Victoria - those are much better handled by 377s, with their denser seats, smaller tables, and lack of a buffet. And by running via Euston, the only sensible service pattern is to have a separate Birmingham to Milton Keynes service, whilst through trains non-stop Rugby to Watford Junction. This is why the Olympia services didn't work when BR first provided them. Originally, there was quite a frequent service, but it has withered away. BR couldn't have introduced a reasonable service on that route with the capacity limitations of the WLL and the need to split the route further north between Birmingham and Trent Valley services, and then split the Trent Valley service again between Manchester and Liverpool. The service at any of the three Midland/Northern cities resembled patchy random trains at the best of times. All that was needed was a regular interval service. It's a classic case of a route that has never been utilised to its full potential. The tragedy is that Livingstone is inserting some station in Chelsea and not closing Olympia when Shepherd's Bush opens. The line will then be wasted on local trains. My suggestion is that the WLL option provides no savings, results in unnecessary duplication of services, and will deter optional passengers from using it because of the inconvenience of West London Central (or whatever you want to call it) and the additional complexity of services. It really depends which optional passengers you want to attract. You have not really addressed this, for example by giving examples of the likely service patterns for the two different options. Well, here's my best guess: WEST LONDON LINE OPTION: 1tph Aberystwyth - Brighton * 1tph Birmingham - Brighton * 1tph Liverpool - Brighton * 1tph Manchester - Brighton * 2tph Northampton - Euston (semi-fast, 8-car)* 1tph Wolverhampton - Euston 1tph Birmingham - Euston 2tph Liverpool - Euston 2tph Manchester - Euston (via Stoke) 2tph random far north - Crewe - Euston 2tph Victoria - Brighton 2tph Victoria - Hayward's Heath // SPLIT E/W Coastway 2tph Victoria - Arun Valley Line 2tph Victoria - Horsham/Dorking (via Epsom) 4tph Willesden Junction - Clapham Junction (0tph without quadrupling) * calls at MKC CENTRAL LONDON TUNNEL OPTION: 2tph Birmingham - MKC* (preferably with a connection at Rugby for the North) 1tph Aberystwyth - Birmingham 4tph Northampton - Euston (semi-fast, 12-car)* 1tph Wolverhampton - Euston - Victoria - Brighton 1tph Birmingham - Euston - Victoria - Arun Valley Line 1tph Birmingham - Euston - Victoria - Horsham (via Epsom) 2tph Liverpool - Euston - Victoria - Hayward's Heath // SPLIT E/W Coastway 1tph Manchester - Euston (via Wilmslow) - Dorking (via Epsom) 1tph Manchester - Euston (via Stoke) - Victoria - Brighton 1tph Manchester - Euston (via Stoke, calls Congleton) - Victoria - Arun Valley Line 2tph random far north - Crewe - Euston - Victoria (terminates!) 4tph Victoria - Gatwick (GEx) 1tph Watford Junction - East Croydon / Brighton 2tph Willesden Junction - Clapham Junction (4tph if the Newt kills the above service) * calls at MKC |
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