Recent content by d5509

The megahab should be designed to replace the other airports as well but the first phase need only replace Heathrow. Once that function is up and running, pre-planned additional phases can assimilate the other airports, one by one - according to a pre-existing master plan, certainly not as...

Gatwick, Luton and Stansted, by virtue of their budget carriers, have an impressive portfolio of European destinations, so they function quite well as EuroAeroHubs. In this respect they ain't broke so why fix them? The problem is getting to them from any other UK airport, as mentioned...

Stansted's transport links to places other than London (and perhaps Cambridge) are by road which has made it a bus and coach hub. Not quite Victoria but pretty good for East Anglia. The GER once ran a St Pancras to Cambridge service, which left the Midland at Kentish Town, ran the length of...

If Heathrow relocated to Shivering Sands there would be a need for new homes and shopping malls alright - but not around Heathrow. Those people earning their living from the airport would relocate with it, leaving the local economy in the Heathrow area depressed. The nearest towns to...

Those airports could be rendered obsolete save as access points to this "High Speed Loop Line". OK if you live to the West of London but another couple of stations - probably Maidstone and Chelmsford might be added for those who don't, with 7 stops it might not be so high-speed. A third...

Going back to HS1, from Dagenham westwards this is mostly routed in tunnel under existing rail lines. The early London tube lines aimed to follow the roads above as far as possible, as that right of way was free, whereas, passing beneath private property was not. I guess you are talking...

And, of course HS1 alongside the A2/M2 and then the M20, together with the adjacent Medway bridges. Also the A12 built alongside the Central line between Leyton and Leytonstone: that was a case of getting a motorway into a city alongside a rail line.

Maybe you could follow the LTS west through Tilbury, turning right at Grays and heading north towards Upminster until just before the M25. The new chord - 5 and a half miles of it - would be laid out on the east side of the M25, joining the GE main line just to the west of Brentwood. I'd...

Hmm? . . . something based on a 67 with a smaller power unit and an electrics package derived from a dual system EMU perhaps ?

If DC to AC conversion were to be driven by energy saving, the focus would be on lines consuming most power, which has got to be the terminals and approaches: lots of tracks, lots of trains, plenty of stop-start. West-of-Woking might give loads of "miles converted" points but not such a...

I've heard 360.s called spaceships and saucers after the noise they make on takeoff. The old 306.s were well known for the synchronized bouncing the passengers experienced, can anyone recall any nicknames for them?

A new Town Center station in Saffron Waldon, obviously good news for commuters if they are within walking distance. If they live on the outskirts or in the country, they will still have to drive/be dropped-off and so might still find Audley End a more attractive and more accessible option...

Running shuttle bus services, integrated into the NR timetable and ticketing system, to places like Saffron Waldon, Haverhill and Maldon sounds as wonderful: as it probably did just before they lost their rail services! But of course IF these bus shuttles could be made successful, that might...

Maldon was the place that came into my mind when I saw the thread. Cut off from Witham in the 60s, I believe, because of the condition of the, now preserved, Wickham Bishops timber viaduct. For a short time at the end of the late 19th century you could catch a direct Colchester - Southend...

You would probably get authorisation for a tramway-type overhead system since new ones are still popping-up all over Europe. To me mixing live wires or 3rd rail and steam railways seems inherently dangerous: it's not the risk factor, it's just dangerous. How about an electric tramway...