Post by mrjrt on Aug 6, 2016 17:56:29 GMT
Incidental I've long been meaning to ask - once the Croxley Rail Link is up and running, will there be much capacity left between Watford High St. and Watford Junction for LO service increases? LO is supposed to go up to 4tph, and the Met is supposed to have 10tph (peak) = 14tph, and I know that LO handles interworking with ~5-6tph Bakerloo services further south = 10tph.
The reason I raise this here rather than in the Met extension thread is that I've long thought that a good plan would extending Ricky's platforms for 8 car Chiltern services and getting a 4-car bay platform into the bargain. Said platform could be used for a Watford Junction shuttle, or, a projected LO service using a reinstated south curve north of Bushey station to maximise line capacity on the Watford branch (i.e. you could easily run an additional 4tph LO from Euston to Rickmansworth without impacting the section between Watford High St. and Watford Junction.)
That all said, I believe the original New Works plan was to rebuild Ricky station with 4 through platforms further east on the straight section bordered by the old goods yard (now Waitrose), and whilst this is somewhat unlikely now it would still have some merit, I suspect. Once the current station buildings were swept away it would be a fairly simple case of widening the western bridge and you could extend the 4-track section easily from Watford South Junction, as intended. In fact, there's little in the way of major obstacles to extending it to Chorleywood station, which itself was supposed to have had major works to put the platform lines on loops so the expresses could overtake (and it appears that there is land still available for this - though given modern growth levels, a full extension of the 4-tracking seems more appropriate). If you were particularly enthused, you might even note that Chalfont & Latimer station is the first real obstacle, and rebuilding that would enable the Met to run solely to Chesham and Chiltern could have exclusive use of the pair of lines between Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill.
Naturally, this is all somewhat rather heavily based upon the supposition that there is desire to both grow the market on this line (which I suspect there isn't), and relieve the main Chiltern route from Aylesbury services (which aren't much to look at now, but might be more significant issues once the line is extended to Milton Keynes). 8-car Chiltern platforms at Aylesbury, Amersham, Rickmansworth and HotH would seem reasonable, if not indeed at the smaller stations between Chalfont & Latimer and Aylesbury/Milton Keynes. Might even enable said segregated lines to be wired up with OHLE so Chiltern could run standard EMUs between MK and Marylebone...
The reason I raise this here rather than in the Met extension thread is that I've long thought that a good plan would extending Ricky's platforms for 8 car Chiltern services and getting a 4-car bay platform into the bargain. Said platform could be used for a Watford Junction shuttle, or, a projected LO service using a reinstated south curve north of Bushey station to maximise line capacity on the Watford branch (i.e. you could easily run an additional 4tph LO from Euston to Rickmansworth without impacting the section between Watford High St. and Watford Junction.)
That all said, I believe the original New Works plan was to rebuild Ricky station with 4 through platforms further east on the straight section bordered by the old goods yard (now Waitrose), and whilst this is somewhat unlikely now it would still have some merit, I suspect. Once the current station buildings were swept away it would be a fairly simple case of widening the western bridge and you could extend the 4-track section easily from Watford South Junction, as intended. In fact, there's little in the way of major obstacles to extending it to Chorleywood station, which itself was supposed to have had major works to put the platform lines on loops so the expresses could overtake (and it appears that there is land still available for this - though given modern growth levels, a full extension of the 4-tracking seems more appropriate). If you were particularly enthused, you might even note that Chalfont & Latimer station is the first real obstacle, and rebuilding that would enable the Met to run solely to Chesham and Chiltern could have exclusive use of the pair of lines between Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill.
Naturally, this is all somewhat rather heavily based upon the supposition that there is desire to both grow the market on this line (which I suspect there isn't), and relieve the main Chiltern route from Aylesbury services (which aren't much to look at now, but might be more significant issues once the line is extended to Milton Keynes). 8-car Chiltern platforms at Aylesbury, Amersham, Rickmansworth and HotH would seem reasonable, if not indeed at the smaller stations between Chalfont & Latimer and Aylesbury/Milton Keynes. Might even enable said segregated lines to be wired up with OHLE so Chiltern could run standard EMUs between MK and Marylebone...
?? 
