Hi all,
I read the official documents about the proposed London Overground stations either side of Old Oak Common, and apparently they were costed at 196 million the pair. The will to build them seems to have faded, but I notice that the ULTra Pod system at Heathrow Terminal 5 only cost 30 million total. So I wondered if an ULTra Pod system could do the job of the two Overground stations, and more, for significantly less money.
ACoRN (Acton Connect Rapid Network) would initially have halts at Park Royal (Piccadilly Line interchange), North Acton (Central Line interchange), Willesden Junction High Level (NLL/WLL interchange), and Willesden Junction Low Level (Bakerloo / WatEus interchange). It would be shown on the tube map not as a line but as a connector blob, to encourage people to view a pod connection from Park Royal to Willesden Junction in the same way that they view the escalator connection from Monument to Bank. The interface in the pod would allow people to select the line they want (for island platforms) and the direction (for side platforms) without naming the stations, in order to reinforce the notion of different lines at a single interchange. This is similar to the way signs in Bank Station point to the District & Circle Lines rather than to Monument.
When appropriate, additional halts at Old Oak Common for the Elizabeth line, GWR and HS2 would be added to the system. The cost of the system would be borne by the railways, in the way that escalator cost is borne.
Chiltern have made noises about reopening the line from South Ruislip to Old Oak Common, but I believe there is enough room along the Central Line corridor for this as well, with no tunnelling or demolition required for any part of the system. The A40 bridge at Park Royal appears to be spacious enough to allow a single track to the north end of each Piccadilly platform.
The outerchange shown on the tube map between Park Royal and Hanger Lane would be replaced by the interchange between Park Royal and North Acton (which has a lot more trains than Hanger Lane). The whole tube map and London Railway map would have to be seriously redesigned because the current distortions place the parts of the new interchange very far apart.
I read the official documents about the proposed London Overground stations either side of Old Oak Common, and apparently they were costed at 196 million the pair. The will to build them seems to have faded, but I notice that the ULTra Pod system at Heathrow Terminal 5 only cost 30 million total. So I wondered if an ULTra Pod system could do the job of the two Overground stations, and more, for significantly less money.
ACoRN (Acton Connect Rapid Network) would initially have halts at Park Royal (Piccadilly Line interchange), North Acton (Central Line interchange), Willesden Junction High Level (NLL/WLL interchange), and Willesden Junction Low Level (Bakerloo / WatEus interchange). It would be shown on the tube map not as a line but as a connector blob, to encourage people to view a pod connection from Park Royal to Willesden Junction in the same way that they view the escalator connection from Monument to Bank. The interface in the pod would allow people to select the line they want (for island platforms) and the direction (for side platforms) without naming the stations, in order to reinforce the notion of different lines at a single interchange. This is similar to the way signs in Bank Station point to the District & Circle Lines rather than to Monument.
When appropriate, additional halts at Old Oak Common for the Elizabeth line, GWR and HS2 would be added to the system. The cost of the system would be borne by the railways, in the way that escalator cost is borne.
Chiltern have made noises about reopening the line from South Ruislip to Old Oak Common, but I believe there is enough room along the Central Line corridor for this as well, with no tunnelling or demolition required for any part of the system. The A40 bridge at Park Royal appears to be spacious enough to allow a single track to the north end of each Piccadilly platform.
The outerchange shown on the tube map between Park Royal and Hanger Lane would be replaced by the interchange between Park Royal and North Acton (which has a lot more trains than Hanger Lane). The whole tube map and London Railway map would have to be seriously redesigned because the current distortions place the parts of the new interchange very far apart.
