Do We Need an Outer London Orbital Rail Line?

[DynamicSpirit]

Well done! Glad you started that new thread. Only glanced at it, because I'm basically at work, but at first glance the northern section seems too close to central London and, if using the North London Line adds no capacity to an existing radial route. It needs to be going through places much closer to the M25 like Waltham Cross.

I largely agree. It looks like they're going for the lowest-cost option, using existing routes as far as possible. There are a few places where that makes sense (such as Sutton-Croydon), but north of the Thames, the result looks like not really adding anything between Barking and West Hampstead, and the supposed outer London orbital line isn't really 'outer' at all.

Opening up Acton-Cricklewood is quite nice, but if they just feed that into the existing, already overcrowded, North London line, I imagine the result could easily be an overloaded line that is unable to cope with likely passenger flows right from day one

But it's early days yet. It's still good to see that various authorities in London are starting to look at the idea of an orbital railway.

 

[lancastrian]

An outer London Orbital rail line. No problem, sir. Would you like a fleet of brand-new 12 coach trains to run on it.....

I have highlighted the magical key word that will guarantee unlimited finance that will ensure this takes place.

Such a true statement Paul.

 

[Busaholic]

Such a true statement Paul.

I live as far from London as is possible in England, where we would consider the resources devoted to public transport in Lancashire a luxury beyond our wildest dreams, and I consider what is being talked about in London is only, in the main, what should have happened in the last four decades, especially bearing in mind most of it will never come about and those schemes that go ahead won;t be complete for decades more, by which time the population will have grown by at least 1 million. Manchester has an ever-growing Metrolink (yes, I know it's no longer in Lancs) and the possibility of many extra train services, whereas in London Tramlink has never got beyond its initial two routes and DLR is full to capacity with nothing extra planned. Even Crossrail will only really increase capacity on the new section, rather than in the suburbs. Almost all the train lines can't take more trains, off-peak as well as peak, especially in south London, and there is no ongoing programme of new Underground lines, or even extensions. Don't mistake mayoral rhetoric for reality (how fortunate you are not to have to breathe in all that hot air).

 

[ainsworth74]

I would ask that we keep this to a discussion about a prospective Outer London Line. If people wish to discuss transport investment in the North (or other areas) I would ask that they either start a new thread or use one of the threads already running.