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Bearing in mind that the proposed Radlett scheme is to cost 300-400 million, an incremental cost of say 40 million to get a WCML connection via the contractor's line, with new signalling etc, wouldn't seem so bad...

Thanks Edwin for an interesting answer. Point taken about the traffic on the lines to the south. Thanks for the info on the contractor's line- very interesting too!

Does the mainline need relief south of St Albans, and if so how badly? If the need is great enough to warrant the $$$, a look at the map suggests you could build a new bit of line to link the North end of the Abbey line (before it curves West) into the mainline and thus into St Albans...

It would be a mistake to just reopen Uckfield-Lewes without factoring in the economic case for linespeed improvements, particular as pertain to improved utilisation of stock and traincrew. Forum readers acquainted with the laws of the known universe may be familiar with the notion that an...

Good point. I sincerely doubt there has ever been evidence to justify the officially endorsed supposition that the level of demand for bus travel is a useful predictor of the upper bound on suppressed or potential demand for heavy rail travel. They are afterall practically incomparable...

Don't even get me started on the impossibility of navigating either the stations or the lines thanks the the worst use of signage imaginable.

I don't think you have read my post. Nowhere have I implied that we should try to get boxes to their final destination by rail unless that destination is the dockside. We are talking about a few to many or many to few relationship. i.e. distribution from a few ports to/from many inland...

You seem well informed and several contributors to this thread have made essentially the same comment. However, I would like to see a serious analysis of why intermodal freight over short distances cannot compete with road. Objection 1: Freight trains are inherently too slow or infrequent to...

So, driving down south from Hull today I took the A1 and found myself musing on all the intermodal containers thundering along on lorries. Before I knock myself out re-reading the freight RUS and googling all night, is anyone aware of good survey data for this container freight flow on the...

When I lived in Washington DC, there were constant accidents on their metro rail system involving collisions between trains or derailments (every few weeks, and certainly several times a year) . Some of these accidents were fatal, many were spectacular. All this on a rail system that is...

Thank you, an excellent example, and a prime demonstration of the value of putting pictures in a thread, which I shall try to emulate with an illustration showing an elevated deck being built over a busy road. Here is an example of the WMATA Silver Line extension in Virginia. I have driven my...

That is the most probable scenario. However it is entirely possible to build an elevated deck over an existing road without closing it. Seen it wiv me own eyes guv. Monopiles/piers are installed and then the bridge deck is jacked out and extended to span them. Apparently the term is "span...

It would be great to see better connectivity between the bits of railway we inherited off those mad Victorians. "Rationalisation" means different things to different people :)

Thanks for all the interesting replies. I am NOT considering either: 1. Roads and railways that happen to run alongside because the lie of the land dictates it (e.g. they occupy the same valley) nor 2. Any form of street running. (Rather, there must be complete separation between road users...

To clarify, I wasn't referring to any form of street running as sometimes seen in dockside branches and industrial sidings. Interesting story about the Kyle of Lochalsh diversion though. Someone was creative!

What examples do we have in the UK (and in Europe) of roads and railways using a co-aligned right of way? It seems to me like a good idea for getting new rail routes into major cities but I am not aware of examples in this country. Taking examples from (light) rail in the USA, one approach is...

Ok, I exaggerated. The timings up the Colne branch are hopeless, however, and I only see one usable train an hour from Burnley to Preston in the morning. I see two an hour from Accy (which are slightly better than one.) painfully slow if you are used to better lines. The service doesn't...

We do indeed digress, and I have only myself to blame. However, I assure you Ed Milliband is not a source of ideas for me or anyone I associate with. My approach to taxation is pragmatic, not ideological. The economic arguments would take a long time to make but I assure you that I quite...

I believe in the end they had to build a whole new formation on a different alignment. So it is actually 500 m of new build railway and lots of new signalling and pointwork at each end. Still not cheap but it starts to make sense. http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=45735

I get your point, but I think you are also making mine for me. Infrastructure investment is a politically driven process, not a technically driven process. Always has been political and always will be. The politicians will always pretend it aint so, and too many people will believe them. The...