London Railway Authority

[bringbackcrouc]

Back when Ken was mayor, one of his aspirations was to integrate Suburban Railways into Transport for London.

The recent success of London Overground where much of the success seems to be down to upgrading the platforms and including the lines on the Tube Map.

How might a London Railway Authority work with the Train Operating Companies, who would run the stations, who would define the service standards? Any thoughts...

JC

 

[Oswyntail]

IMHO, the chief problem would be how to define London. If you include an area that contains all those services that have their service levels dictated chiefly by the needs of London commuters, then you would include Peterborough, Oxford, Southampton, Ipswich and everywhere South and East. You would then have to give the native passengers of those areas some say in running things, but then, presumably, ask for contributions.
Oh, hang on, that was Network South East.

 

[Ivo]

Was this how the "Overground Network" first came about?

Integrating all the services as suggested above may work, but I think that there would have to be some exceptions to the rule (which in theory ruins the argument). By exceptions I mean routes where peak traffic is not determined by commuters, or special routes, e.g. the Brighton and Cambridge Express services for the first example and Southeastern High-Speed and the Gatwick Express for the second one.

...AlphaLine, anyone?