What would have happened if BR's CTRL route was selected?

[Sad Sprinter]

As a thought experiment, let's say the government chose BR's HS1 route into London, via Warwick Gardens into Waterloo/Kings Cross Low Level - how much of the route could realistically have been built and what would be the advantages and disadvantages we would see today over Arup's route?

My personal guess, is that the route to Kings Cross would be canned. From reading what others have said about the Low Level station in previous threads, it seems the station would have been impossible to build. I could see costs soaring throughout the 1990s, and the route just pruned back to WG leaving Waterloo as the sole terminus. Either that, or the route would be redesigned at a later stage - adding to the costs and leaving Waterloo as the terminus for a few years longer. Any ideas?

 

[swt_passenger]

I first had to search for “Warwick Gardens”. What the results showed is that you seem to be the forum expert on BR’s plans already? I do share your suspicions that two routes wouldn’t have lasted through full analysis.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I first had to search for “Warwick Gardens”. What the results showed is that you seem to be the forum expert on BR’s plans already? I do share your suspicions that two routes wouldn’t have lasted through full analysis.

Wow-what a compliment! I admit I have done quite a bit of research on this route over the years but I'm sure there are user much more learned on the subject than I am

To explain, "Warwick Gardens" refers to a small park just west of Peckham Rye that would have been dug up to build a ramp from the Catford Loop down to the CTRL tunnel below. A junction would have existed underneath Peckham, where one route would surface and the other would swing north to Kings Cross.

 

[Galvanize]

My Parents old house would have more than likely been flattened, as they lived in Peckham near the Existing “Historic” Railway Lines…I remember my Mum told me there were regular meetings with BR officials and Southwark Council showing the residents exactly where the CTRL lines were gonna go.

For months, my Parents (and indeed many other local residents) waited with dread for a letter to come through the front door from BR informing them that their house had been purchased and that would be their “notice” to quit. Fortunately this never happened to them…but I understand BR DID buy some properties in the area, and upon the plug being pulled…had to sell them back!

Maybe…just maybe, had their also been a Peckham International interchange (not proposed in real life)…it could well have been written into an Only Fools and Horses script with Del Boy trying to take advantage of Foreign Passengers, and maybe get his BonJour and AuRevoirs the right way round.

 

[OVS Flatbottom]

Maybe…just maybe, had their also been a Peckham International interchange (not proposed in real life)…it could well have been written into an Only Fools and Horses script with Del Boy trying to take advantage of Foreign Passengers, and maybe get his BonJour and AuRevoirs the right way round.

The controversy did actually get a mention in the other Peckham sitcom (are there more than two?), Desmond's. See https://londonist.com/london/history/when-peckham-was-almost-obliterated-for-eurotunnel, about halfway down.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

My Parents old house would have more than likely been flattened, as they lived in Peckham near the Existing “Historic” Railway Lines…I remember my Mum told me there were regular meetings with BR officials and Southwark Council showing the residents exactly where the CTRL lines were gonna go.

For months, my Parents (and indeed many other local residents) waited with dread for a letter to come through the front door from BR informing them that their house had been purchased and that would be their “notice” to quit. Fortunately this never happened to them…but I understand BR DID buy some properties in the area, and upon the plug being pulled…had to sell them back!

Maybe…just maybe, had their also been a Peckham International interchange (not proposed in real life)…it could well have been written into an Only Fools and Horses script with Del Boy trying to take advantage of Foreign Passengers, and maybe get his BonJour and AuRevoirs the right way round.

This is what I mean, I can imagine a major outcry would take place if the route was selected. Given that Peckham and Kings Cross, both major Labour areas would be heavily effected, I can imagine Labour making some sort of promise to change the routing if they won the "next" election.

Would be a massive outcry if, by 2004, Eurostar still announces it will be leaving Waterloo and just serving Kings Cross Low Level - meaning the junction and the upheaval it's construction would cause would be completely in vain.