I don't really see how you can. It would defintley be possible, but would cost billions. In fact the biggest things the WLL needs is more capacity for freight. There are plenty of extremely valuable freight services that have been difficult to find paths for due to a lack of capacity on the WLL.
Where does the freight go though? The WLL will be best served by remaining as it is.
Isn't this expected though? Would you want increased capacity throughout the day or just peak times?
Are the trains actually over-capacity?
There are a large number of freight paths on the WLL but few seem to be actually used - last Thursday for example 34 freight trains went through Kensington Olympia, that's an average of less than 1 tph in each direction while a further 80+ paths were unused
The vast majority of those are Channel Tunnel Freight paths which have the most rights on the network along with seasonal and test trains.
Given that freight and passenger speeds are near enough the same, loops are only of use to regulate traffic if there is a pathing issue at either end of the WLL.
I agree, I think a sensible meaning of rammed is perhaps when it is so busy, you can’t physically get yourself on the train? Does LO experience this at all on the WLL?
Indeed. If you take a class 158 or 175 for example once all seats are taken and you have maybe 20 people standing per vehicle there's very little room indeed for anyone else to actually board the train. It's still possible as long as people stand along the aisle, but the number of additional people who can board is small and the conditions will mean some people choose not to. On an 800 even 5 - 10 people standing up per coach is very difficult as their vestibules and aisles are even narrower. However, the 378s are a totally different story and you would be worried if there weren't at minimum 20 people per vehicle standing as it would indicate quite low loadings.
It's rarer since the days of 3 car 313s - which did see people routinely left behind. And I think a move to 6 cars would come before material frequency change (with any stock orders for the ELL extra 2tph too, I'd expect - but unlikely with TfL as it is - govt change can't come soon enough)
A variation of the London Underways motorway proposal? https://www.roads.org.uk/articles/underways
<crayon mode> Beckenham Hill-Harlesden, with links to a portal near Battersea Dogs Home, so fast passenger trains avoid inner south London, and freight, such as it is, misses everything. </crayon mode>
So this deep level tunnel is going suddenly pop up a spur at Battersea and achieve what, exactly?
Allow fast trains from Kent to avoid south London, increasing the capacity for inner London. TfL and NR have suggested such a thing, extending it for freight to the WCML is pure crayoning admittedly
Even by my incredibly uninformed standards I have little overall idea of freight flows across London beyond there's a load along the NLL/Goblin, a load up the WLL, and some to/from Acton yard. Not to mention the big container ports downstream. It was more tongue in cheek than anything else to set people talking.
