"Calls to build new national rai line"

"Terry Harper" <Terry.Harper@> wrote in message news:<cm3t12$9ct$1@sparta.>...
> "Charles Ellson" <charles@ellson.> wrote in message
> news:1099251605snz@ellson....
> > In article <cm3012$cd$1@hercules.>
> > Terry.Harper@ "Terry Harper" writes:
> > >
> > > Something outside the M25 might make sense, but most of the available
> lines
> > > have either gone or are clogged already.
> >
> > Well, to start off with there's the Oxford-Bletchley-Cambridge route which
> > ISTR isn't too permanently obstructed on the non-working bits, although
> > the by-passing is probably more useful for north-south traffic to allow
> the
> > real world (i.e. Norf ov Wa'furd) to trade with the continent. An
> integrated
> > upgrade of e.g. the A34 corridor to the west would presumably be too
> > sensible? An eastward turn from there avoiding Newbury could partially
> > cure the Basingstoke problem ;-) while improving access to/from Gatwick.
>
> Yes. Logically something like
> Ashford-Tonbridge-Redhill-Guildford-Reading-Oxford-Bletchley-Cambridge-Chelm
> sford-Ashford ought to do it. A few missing links and awkward junctions to
> sort out.

That orbital would be just a bit far out for traffic passing London to
the east. My suggested route would be (combined with the new N-S main
line!):
- reinstate Nottingham - Melton
- reopen Corby station
- quadruple Kettering - Bedford
- reinstate Bedford Midland - Hitchin
- 6 track through Hitchin (ECML Slow, Bedford-Stansted, ECML Fast,
ECML Fast, Bedford-Stansted, ECML Slow), putting in crossovers between
the various tracks (to allow trains to run from the North to Kent)
- wholly new line heading east from a new Hitchin South Junction to a
new north-facing junction south of Stansted Mountfitchet
- extend the Stansted Airport branch down the Chelmer valley to a west
facing junction east of Chelmsford
- then branch off west of Chelmsford, paralleling the A130, bridging
the Thames (Thameshaven - Cooling), joining the North Kent Line at
Higham
- N-E curve from the Medway Valley Line to the CTRL
- Paddock Wood avoiding lines (for higher speeds - same idea as the
Didcot avoiding lines)
- adjust junction layout at Tonbridge so that all platforms can be
accessed from the Godstone Line
- E-S curve at Redhill

"Adrian Hudson" <adrian_h_hudsonm> wrote in message
news:505eacfd.0411011627.6035d8f8@c om...
>
> Better still use Woodford Halse-Banbury. From Banbury there is access
> to the West and Southwest, or London. For London the link should use
> the Chiltern line to Northolt and then use the GW to the West London
> Line. We need a decent station at Kensington Olympia where the trains
> can call befor proceeding to the Southeast.

Need to reopen the National Rail lines from North Acton to Shepherds Bush,
alongside LUL Central Line. The only route from Northolt Junction to
Kensington Olympia at present is via the Greenford branch, Ealing Broadway,
Acton Main Line, Acton Wells Junction, Willesden Junction and Mitre Bridge
Junction.

Peter

Peter Masson wrote:

> Need to reopen the National Rail lines from North Acton to Shepherds
> Bush, alongside LUL Central Line. The only route from Northolt
> Junction to Kensington Olympia at present is via the Greenford
> branch, Ealing Broadway, Acton Main Line, Acton Wells Junction,
> Willesden Junction and Mitre Bridge Junction.
>

Unfortunately, and with the utmost lack of consideration, LU have built a
new platform road on the formation at North Acton.

In message <76d844d9.0411011618.72bd5b66@com >, at
16:18:04 on Mon, 1 Nov 2004, James <jad29@le.ac.uk> remarked:
>- reinstate Nottingham - Melton

Have you actually seen what would be required? The mile and a half from
Nottingham station to the south has been almost entirely built upon,
with the bridges and embankments removed. You'd have to relocate quite a
bit of the new residential (mainly OAP) accommodation elsewhere. But it
would mean I'd get trains visible from my bedroom window. And the line
crosses the one remaining Nottingham station at high level and right
angles, with no obvious way to make a curve down to the platforms.
--
Roland Perry

You're thinking of the GCML. I've checked the OS 1:25k map, and the
railway alignment is free apart from the bridge over the Trent being
used by the A6011. This would have to be relocated slightly downstream
so the railway can get its alignment back.

> You need a new map :-(

No, actually it's typical bloody OS that the current 1:25k map is
hopelessly out of date (it's aimed at the "leisure" market, so
basically they don't give a flying First-logo). It's similarly out of
date in central Birmingham by approximately 4 years.


I've now checked the 1:1k on EDINA, and it's almost impressive how
comprehensively it's been sprawled upon. I'm particularly amused by the
outermost cul-de-sac being squeezed onto the railway to avoid being on
greenbelt land (how silly).