What if there was a overground circle line?

[Fazaar1889]

Beginning and ending in Clapham Junction, not a full circle but the termini both ending in the same station, like how the circle line isn't actually a circle.

The four "corners" could be, Clapham Junction, Surrey Quays, Dalston Junction and Wilsdon Junction from which the trains will head back down to Clapham Junction.

Could be like an "outer" circle line.

 

[Mcv378]

It's coming soon in 2012!

 

[randyrippley]

Have a read of this wiki page which describes the many variants of the old London Outer Circle. New ideas are rarely new!

Outer Circle (London) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Outer Circle was a London & North Western Railway service in London that operated from 1872 to 1908. The route was from the District Railway station at Mansion House to Earl's Court, then via the West London Railway to Willesden Junction and then via the North London Railway to Broad Street. Although not a complete circuit, it was one of several 'circle' routes around London that opened at the same time, such as the 'inner circle' that is today's Circle line.[1] Trains would run once every 30 minutes. In 1908 the service was cut back to run from Earl's Court to Broad Street.

The Midland Railway operated a kind of Super Outer Circle from St Pancras to Earl's Court for two years from 1878 to 1880, via the Dudding Hill freight line.

 

[Wolfie]

Beginning and ending in Clapham Junction, not a full circle but the termini both ending in the same station, like how the circle line isn't actually a circle.

The four "corners" could be, Clapham Junction, Surrey Quays, Dalston Junction and Wilsdon Junction from which the trains will head back down to Clapham Junction.

Could be like an "outer" circle line.

Given that one Overground line runs Highbury and Islington to Clapham Junction via Surrey Quays and another runs Stratford via Highbury and Islington and Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction already (and have done so for years).....

 

[edwin_m]

I'm assuming they don't do this because such a long route would mean operational disruption anywhere would spread end to end. At least now the different routes are disconnected so problems on one won't affect the others.

 

[Fazaar1889]

Have a read of this wiki page which describes the many variants of the old London Outer Circle. New ideas are rarely new!

Outer Circle (London) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Interesting, thanks!

 

[swt_passenger]

I'm assuming they don't do this because such a long route would mean operational disruption anywhere would spread end to end. At least now the different routes are disconnected so problems on one won't affect the others.

I suspect they didn’t want a flat junction between the ELL and NLL at Highbury and Islington, because any clockwise through trains would have been another flat crossing conflict. Posts in earlier threads have suggested grade separation to allow this but it’s almost certainly unbuildable.

 

[Turtle]

1I

Beginning and ending in Clapham Junction, not a full circle but the termini both ending in the same station, like how the circle line isn't actually a circle.

The four "corners" could be, Clapham Junction, Surrey Quays, Dalston Junction and Wilsdon Junction from which the trains will head back down to Clapham Junction.

Could be like an "outer" circle line.

I've long thought this would be an excellent idea, in principle. As usual the problem would be cost of the various new junctions. I do not know the geography of the areas concerned so I can't really speculate. Ideally it would be great to see the recreation of the old Middle and Outer Circles cutting out some of the interchanges.