Croxley Rail Link hits the sidings

On Apr 2, 10:48 am, johnnyburk...@ wrote:
> "The Croxley Rail Link is not just the icing on the cake for the
> people of West Watford, it is the cherry on the icing of the cake."

Unless they're travelling to harrow or some other nearby suburb , why
would someone get the met from watford junction and be taken on a tour
of north west london when they could get a direct train to euston
instead?

B2003

The Croxley Link line will be a fantastic success when built because
Watford's people will be able to get to Rickmansworth and the Chiltern Line
(Amersham / Aylesbury etc.) by quick tube thus avoiding the horrendous the
road traffic along this busy corridor. You have to do a rush hour bus trip
from Watford to Rickmansworth to really understand how choked this area is
with traffic. Also and at last Chiltern line passengers can hook up with the
WCML.

Bring it on!

"Boltar" <boltar2003.uk> wrote in message
news:b0933049-64f5-4515-9c2f-1cd43b8eb04e@b5g2000pri..com...
> On Apr 2, 10:48 am, johnnyburk...@ wrote:
>> "The Croxley Rail Link is not just the icing on the cake for the
>> people of West Watford, it is the cherry on the icing of the cake."
>
> Unless they're travelling to harrow or some other nearby suburb , why
> would someone get the met from watford junction and be taken on a tour
> of north west london when they could get a direct train to euston
> instead?
>
> B2003
>

On Apr 2, 9:30 am, "Mitch" <new...@mitchelmores.plus.com> wrote:
> The Croxley Link line will be a fantastic success when built because
> Watford's people will be able to get to Rickmansworth and the Chiltern Line
> (Amersham / Aylesbury etc.) by quick tube thus avoiding the horrendous the
> road traffic along this busy corridor. You have to do a rush hour bus trip
> from Watford to Rickmansworth to really understand how choked this area is
> with traffic. Also and at last Chiltern line passengers can hook up with the
> WCML.
>
> Bring it on!
>
> "Boltar" <boltar2....uk> wrote in message
>
> news:b0933049-64f5-4515-9c2f-1cd43b8eb04e@b5g2000pri..com...
>
>
>
> > On Apr 2, 10:48 am, johnnyburk...@ wrote:
> >> "The Croxley Rail Link is not just the icing on the cake for the
> >> people of West Watford, it is the cherry on the icing of the cake."
>
> > Unless they're travelling to harrow or some other nearby suburb , why
> > would someone get the met from watford junction and be taken on a tour
> > of north west london when they could get a direct train to euston
> > instead?
>
> > B2003- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Couldn't have said it better.

On Wed, 2 Apr 2008, Boltar wrote:

> On Apr 2, 10:48 am, johnnyburk...@ wrote:
>
>> "The Croxley Rail Link is not just the icing on the cake for the
>> people of West Watford, it is the cherry on the icing of the cake."
>
> Unless they're travelling to harrow or some other nearby suburb , why
> would someone get the met from watford junction and be taken on a tour
> of north west london when they could get a direct train to euston
> instead?

They won't. Presumably, you'd like to see Croydon Tramlink closed down,
because it doesn't provide a sensible way to get to central London?

Watford is a major town, and a centre of employment, in its own right.
Lots and lots of people commute from surrounding smaller towns and
villages into it, as well as going there to shop, go out, etc. The problem
is that at the moment, they have to do this by road, precisely because the
railways are all London-centric. The Croxley link would turn the Amersham
branch of the Met into a very effective local line serving Watford, and
hopefully get a lot of people out of their cars. Adding a few extra
stations inside Watford doesn't hurt, either.

Although having said all that, a lot of the bumph surrounding the link
does frame it as a way of getting people into London, particularly from
the south of Watford, which seems a bit mad. Even if they run fast Mets
into London, it's going to have a really hard time competing with WCML
expresses. The local trains to Amersham seem to be more of a future
possibility than the driving force.

tom

--
We don't contact anybody or seek anybody's permission for what we do. Even
if it's impersonating postal employees. -- Birdstuff

"Tom Anderson" <twic@urchin.earth.li> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.64.0804021904470.11849@urchin.eart h.li
>>> On Apr 2, 10:48 am, johnnyburk...@ wrote:
>>>
>>>> "The Croxley Rail Link is not just the icing on the cake for the
>>>> people of West Watford, it is the cherry on the icing of the cake."
>
> While we're on the subject:
>
> Wouldn't it make sense for the branch to be NR rather than LU? Watford
> Junction and Watford High Street are NR stations, and AIUI the
> Metropolitan line north of Harrow-on-the-Hill is also owned by NR (the
> fasts, at least).

No, all the tracks are LU-owned from HoH to just north of Amersham.
Chiltern runs on LU metals, not vice versa.

On 2 Apr, 19:04, Tom Anderson <t...@urchin.earth.li> wrote:
> On Wed, 2 Apr 2008, Boltar wrote:
> > On Apr 2, 10:48 am, johnnyburk...@ wrote:
>
> >> "The Croxley Rail Link is not just the icing on the cake for the
> >> people of West Watford, it is the cherry on the icing of the cake."
>
> > Unless they're travelling to harrow or some other nearby suburb , why
> > would someone get the met from watford junction and be taken on a tour
> > of north west london when they could get a direct train to euston
> > instead?
>
> They won't. Presumably, you'd like to see Croydon Tramlink closed down,
> because it doesn't provide a sensible way to get to central London?

It does , its a feeder system to a number of mainline stations. But I
take the point.

>
> Watford is a major town, and a centre of employment, in its own right.

True , but a lot of that employment is in industrial estates around
the town (I used to work in one of them back in the mid 90s) which
with the best will in the world arn't exactly easy walking distance
from watford junction.

B2003

Tom Anderson wrote:
>
> But now i'm reading CULG and Clive says "LU
> takes over ownership of all 6 tracks just south of [HotH]", and on
> his layout diagram, the border is drawn on the NR lines, and not the
> Met ones. Oh, but hang on, there's another border just north of
> Amersham, at Mantles Wood junction. So do LU really own the shared
> fasts from HotH to Mantles Wood? So Chiltern trains run over NR, then
> LU, the NR?

Other than that Mantles Wood is not a junction, just a boundary, that is
correct. Mantles Wood to Harrow South Junction is entirely LUL, with
Chiltern having running rights over the fast lines.

On Wed, 2 Apr 2008, Boltar wrote:

> On 2 Apr, 19:04, Tom Anderson <t...@urchin.earth.li> wrote:
>> On Wed, 2 Apr 2008, Boltar wrote:
>>> On Apr 2, 10:48 am, johnnyburk...@ wrote:
>>
>>>> "The Croxley Rail Link is not just the icing on the cake for the
>>>> people of West Watford, it is the cherry on the icing of the cake."
>>>
>>> Unless they're travelling to harrow or some other nearby suburb , why
>>> would someone get the met from watford junction and be taken on a tour
>>> of north west london when they could get a direct train to euston
>>> instead?
>>
>> Watford is a major town, and a centre of employment, in its own right.
>
> True , but a lot of that employment is in industrial estates around the
> town (I used to work in one of them back in the mid 90s) which with the
> best will in the world arn't exactly easy walking distance from watford
> junction.

That's true enough. But bear in mind that other stations are being added
to the system: Watford High Street already exists, but will gain the
Croxley service, and that's pretty close to all the stuff on the southeast
corner of town (although i think that's mostly commercial); the estates on
the southwest corner of town aren't that far from the Ascot Way station,
and actually not that far from the existing Croxley LU, which will gain
more trains. For places on the northeast side of town, though, no, the new
train won't be so great. Unless they can work out through running onto the
St Albans Abbey branch!

Interestingly, running right through the middle of the huge industrial
estates on the southwest side of town is the old Watford and Rickmansworth
Railway alignment, now a cycle path. Perhaps one day that could also be
brought back into the fold.

tom

--
We don't contact anybody or seek anybody's permission for what we do. Even
if it's impersonating postal employees. -- Birdstuff

On Wed, 2 Apr 2008 15:49:39 -0700 (PDT), Mr Thant
<maha.thray.sithu.u.thant@> wrote:

>On 2 Apr, 23:30, Tom Anderson <t...@urchin.earth.li> wrote:
>> And heading north. I saw a mention of a branch that was built to the
>> Croxley printworks - is this it? Seems a bit mad that this railway built
>> two separate branches that went to almost the same place. No wonder they
>> went bust.
>
>The London Railway Atlas* says the branch to the north goes to
>"Croxley Mill", very near Croxley Green station.
>
>(* You really should buy a copy)
>
The two branches (Rickmansworth and Croxley Green) were built by
different companies at different times. Rickmansworth was first in the
1860s by a local company and Croxley Green later by the LNWR using
part of the route to Rickmansworth (later re-used again for the DC
line from Watford Junction to Watford High Street and Croxley depot).
If I'm remembering the location of Croxley Mills correctly then it was
effectively just a siding built off an existing railway.

On Wed, 2 Apr 2008, Mr Thant wrote:

> On 2 Apr, 23:30, Tom Anderson <t...@urchin.earth.li> wrote:
>
>> And heading north. I saw a mention of a branch that was built to the
>> Croxley printworks - is this it? Seems a bit mad that this railway built
>> two separate branches that went to almost the same place. No wonder they
>> went bust.
>
> The London Railway Atlas* says the branch to the north goes to
> "Croxley Mill", very near Croxley Green station.

Okay. A bit of digging reveals that this mill was a paper mill, built by a
John Dickinson. Printworks was almost right!

> (* You really should buy a copy)

Yes sir. Sorry sir.

tom

--
Sorry. Went a bit Atari Teenage Riot there. -- Andrew