East of Epping

Wonder if we can band together and get some of this old dusty info using the Freedom of Information Act?

Abridge isnt far though for an extension. Would it have been a spur?

Found an interesting site: East of Epping. www.urban75.org/london/ongar.html

At first they did run a standard stock shuttle ( 3 cars) service from Loughton to Ongar, until a new timetable was introduced. London Transport decided it best to run trains from Epping to Ongar - not forgetting two trains ran in the rush-hour, meeting at North Weald. One train was stabled at Loughton and the other at Hainault, unless it needed depot attention, as it normally did for new brake shoes, etc.

I found this info from the 1963 timetable for British Railways trains from PSUL:

Temple Mills East - Leyton (L.T.B.) (30ch.)

6-20 a.m. SUN Liverpool St.—Epping

6-56 a.m. SUN Liverpool St.—Epping

N 2-26 a.m. Stratford—Epping

3-51 a.m. Stratford—Epping

N 3-11 a.m. Epping—Stratford

N 4-37 a.m. Epping—Stratford

5-06 a.m. SUN Epping— Stratford

5-36 a.m. SUN Epping—Statford

I think that after the heady days of the 1935 New Works Programme the post war Green Belt restrictions and the Nationalisaton of all Railways left the London Transport Executive with a lemon.
Ongar was certainly a withered limb and should have been closed before electrification and while LTE could provide a replacement bus.
I do not know the area now but are the lines beyond Debden and Hainault / Woodford able to justify a 'Tube Service ?

Was there any plans to extend beyond West Ruslip?

mmm a that would be good to see , while your playing golf, a 92 stock!

Thats what I thought!

West Ruislip, Harefield Road and then Denham. Green belt legislation, killed the plans however.

Does Denham have a large population? Compared to West Ruislip that is?

You think Denham's bad....you should see Bushey/Bushey Heath and Brockley Hill.

Brockley Hill is next to where a 100%+ redevlopment of a large housing estate is being rebuilt, and Bushey/Bushey Heath have large commuter populations that have to travel to Watford (20 mins), Harrow (25 mins), Stanmore (20 mins) or Edgware (40 mins) to get into London.

Pretty much the only place that hasn't grown is Elstree...but then that was pretty much just a field before and still largely is (though there are a few pockets of housing around).

[edit]
I should probably point out those times are by bus, and I left out Elstree & Borehamwood TL as its such a pain to get to due to the awful Arriva local bus service. That's only 10 or so minutes away...when the bus is actually running.

The thing with the central is it really is too long with the result that it serves two differant purposes: Distant suburban cummuter branches which meet to form a dense and often overcrowded cross london stretch.
The answer I think is simple [yet unfeasible for sheer cost]...build another two tracks between the junction at North Acton and the junction at Leytonstone, opperating this as an expressway underneath the existing formation. WR/Denham - Epping/Ongar trains would use this stretch using stock with a similar seating plan as the victoria line stock (ie limited transverse seating). Of course, the fact that crossrail may or may not happen whenever it does or doesnt kills this idea straight off.

If the chiltern metro comes about it would most certainly be a good idea to extend it to Denham, if not Gerrard's Cross.

At the time of planning the central line upgrade, traffic was not that heavy and it was considered that the pair of branches at each end was probably the best configuration in order to run a busy service through the middle and still get enough users. The simplicity of having 2 x 1/4 the service interval outside the center )thus making 1/2 of the center frequency) with Liv Street to White City/Marble Arch shuttles providing the other 1/2 looked good .... then. Nobody could envisage the massive increases that would happen later. Some you win eh?

Invade district territory??? Nah, can't see that....