Back to Hounslow...

You don't say.....?



Yeah - like ∇ on the Northern!!

But what's the point?
The main goal on that line is Heathrow...the District is never going to be extended there as the extension was built to tube gauge.
Re-creating the service of the 1960s (when everyone recognised the frustration of the line ending at Hounslow West) seems odd,added to the potential tourist-confusion of some trains stopping just a little short of the real destination.
If the District could take over the intermediate stops and the Picc ron non-stop from (say) Acton Town to Hounslow West (or East,or Central,doesn't matter for the purposes of argument) then there would be a point,but the four-track only goes as far as Northfields so beyond there,all trains would effectively have to be stoppers.
So what's the benefit?
Run the District down to a rebuilt Hounslow Town terminus??
That would make a little tiny bit of sense but the expense would be horrific.
RUISLIP is right...Uxbridge would be easier.....

Regrettably the cut and cover to Hatton Cross was built to tube gauge because of costs savings requirements. The tunnel is barely below the surface along Bath Road. Then it was decided to complete the link to Heathrow Central and it was obviously required to be in tunnel except of course for a c-and-c section. Then to compound the situation the Lampton Road and Kingsley Road iron bridges were replaced with tube-gauge bridges so that even stops sub-surface stock getting to Hounslow Central.

As I have mentioned before, by 1965 a heavy rail route to Heathrow was being mooted, with a branch off of the Windsor Lines at Feltham. It was also suggested that the line could have continued in tunnel as far as the Staines West branch to creat a loop line. Another suggestion was a monorail from Feltham! It does seem that the Underground link really only came to the fore by 1970, with a SR branch being the favourite.

As to 'not much work', I can testify from having been a friend of the civil engineer from W C French that built the section to Hatton Cross that there is a heck of a lot of engineering required these days, and things like sewers, rivers, etc., play a major part. Then there are the things called 'NIMBYS' and their brethren who object to having a) a railway near them or b) having a compulsory purchase order against them.

The big green railway using tube stock? Have you lost your mind!?

It's bad enough as it is, using the C stock for wimblewares y'know!

Not heard of the high street Kensington plan, but I know there was definitely talk of a south circle - heathrow service using the 1983 stock
I am guessing Mansion House would have been used as the city terminus, as I do not think it was regularly used for other services, and so was "spare"

Just what is the obsession with running District trains to Heathrow? In fact what is wrong with changing trains as long as the connections are available? Indeed thinking completely out of the box it would perhaps make more sense not to have lines criss crossing London but to have a proper Circle line and to terminate trains from all other lines to it such that crossing London would become a three service journey. Obviously the existing Circle is inadequate for such a plan so I would advocate a brand new deep level four track Circle line at a greater radius from the existing one some way between it and the existing other line termini.
Building new lines is expensive as everyone knows and building without a global plan is clearly very wasteful so we ought to forget all the crazy poorly thought out individual schemes and think of the future. The planners need to decide what should come first, the transport infrastructure or the need for it. The former requires greater initial investment and commitment but the latter can become prohibitively expensive. The Underground has seen both over many decades and in all honesty with hindsight IMHO it would have been better to build an entirely new deep level network than to keep adding bits and pieces on to the existing system but we are where we are of course and Heathrow has enough LU services, it doesn't need another line or another service but possibly a rethink of what it has already!

News to me, but that means nothing really!

What timescale are we talking about? Proposal in the 1970s or earlier? The mind boggles at the the engineering work involved.

By the way I have never seen any proposals in the Airport extension discussions about bringing the District to Heathrow via Hounslow West. I do query now whether, if funds had been available, and they weren't, whether building the Heathrow extension to sub-surface gauge would have been of any advantage.

What Heathrow needs is to convert current Terminal 4 service to a shuttle from Heathrow 1-2-3 and send all the trains directly to Terminal 5 via 1-2-3.

I recall the justification of sending the Picc to Heathrow was the supposed fact that there more hotels in the vicinity of the Piccadilly Line than (say) the District Line. That may have been true them, but I'm not sure how true it is now. Obviously the comparison can only be made east of South Kensington where the lines divide. There has been an explosion of hotel development around Victoria and Tower Hill, whilst the Docklands area is best reached via the District. Yes, there are still hotels around King's Cross and Manor House, but what self-respectihg tourist would want to stay in them? The reality is that any other "world metro" would have built the Heathrow extension to both gauges, even if only as a future contingency.

Well yes, but the line was District Line to start with (pre-1964) and totally gauged to fit surface stock until Hounslow West was rebuilt to allow the extension to Hatton Cross ten years' later.

The biggest loss of opportunity on what is now deemed "SSL" until the S Stock project decided not to invest to allow the District Line to (return) to 8-car operation.

The point is that they needn't be so slow though.

If the Piccadilly provided the local service from Heathrow/Northfields/Turnam Green (and perhaps Ealing Broadway), then the District would be able to run semi-fast from Heathrow/Northfields to Earl's Court (stopping at Acton Town only).

Difficult, not impossible though.

4 track to Hounslow Central; read that somewhere aswell. Think MAC Horne might have an artical that mentiones it on his website about rail links to LHR?

The fundamental problem with Heathrow is that its a totally seperate traffic source to the rest of the branch. It requires both a local service for commuters both ways and an express service for people catching flights there. When XR comes into play it'll presumably provide a bit of relief for the Pic though. The problem remains that east of Turnham Green there are arguably 5 different services on 2 lines trying to share 4 tracks. The Pic supposedly can't take a higher frequency without it imploding and the District is having its life sucked out of it through the Wimbledon branch. Yet an increased service towards Heathrow is wanted? Well to make an apple pie first you must create the universe. And if you want more trains at Acton, you need a way of getting them there from the east. Grove Road curve, anyone?