Metropolitan line extension to Upminster

Also because of the District depot is at Upminster it would result in an enormous amount of dead mileage.

Once again the issue of the circle line is at the root of this.

The problem with the Circle line and the "Edgware Road fiasco is the imbalance of lines feeding into it clockwise and out anti-clockwise from Hammersmith and then the Metropolitan.

I read somewhere else a suggestion that instead of withdrawing the Olympia service some of the Hammersmith trains should be diverted there thus solving congestion near Hammersmith and the Edgware Road change.

In fact the the issue as I see it with Olympia is that trains from there also feed into the Circle Line clockwise from Earls Court thus worsening the situation.

Surely a lot of problems could be solved by having a Circle Line consisting of two basic services; Barking to Barking (or thereabouts) round the Circle and and the Wimbledon Wimbledon-Edgware Road service extended round the Circle to Olympia.

Whatever else fits in with that is bye the bye but essentially this would maintain the Circle service without any break and relieve the clockwise bottle neck from three more lines than anti-clockwise feeding in to two.

CORRECTION

SHOULD READ:-

"Whatever else fits in with that is bye the bye but essentially this would maintain the Circle service without any break and relieve the clockwise bottle neck from three more lines than anti-clockwise feeding in to ONE."

And yes, it would mean Earls Court being served twice by the same train which makes one ponder over whether the line diagrams would be linear or in the shape of a loop.

All I have heard and read about in the past 5 years has been a proposal to extend the Met Main to Barking (primarily Uxbridge branch trains), in essence allowing the H&C to terminate @ Aldgate. When first proposed, the kicker was that this could not be effected until the A stock was replaced.

I knew I was close, just 8 stations out.

Does anyone know why it couldn't be done until all of the A stock was gone?

They are exceptionally wide, and there are a handful of gauge infringements

It wasn't out of gauge for the service it was built for. It was built that big so they could fit 3+2 seating.

If you really want a go-anywhere stock it would have to be tube gauge and only four cars long.

Even on NR, the 165s for example are confined to GW and Chiltern lines - whilst only 313s fit down the line to Moorgate.

The version of the plan that seemed to be spoken of the most was, as indicated, a straight swap of Met and H&C eastern terminii, and it may or may not have been tied-up at one point with the Tea-cup proposal, which subsequently came to pass.

With regards to the platform lengths physically, before rebuild Whitechapel 24 road had a 435' berth, and West Ham was up at 440'. Plaistow, Barking, and Dagenham East bays don't look long enough. I assume that West Hams new loop isn't big enough? As Dstock7080 says though signalling equipment would need moving at most, and the unused bits of platform would need refurbishment.

Sometime this month I believe.

I think you might need to wait a few more months before seeing passenger workings beyond Aldgate