Chelsea-Hackney line (Crossrail 2)

you suggested something like Thameslink, which is different than completely outer/regional services, but implies a mix of both inner suburban, outer suburban and regional. You also stuck with Paddington, which is a stupid idea.

I also don't see how journeys like Swindon to Southend are going to be more travelled than Romford to Ealing... Crossrail as proposed to be built would benefit Swindon to Southend, just as much as it would benefit Romford to Ealing.

How many families in Colchester fly long haul, how many take the train, how difficult is it really to take the Circle/H&C/planned Crossrail to Paddington/Farringdon and then change for trains to the airport. Yes a no change thing would be better, however is there enough of these one-off journeys to justify such a line.

Surely there would be two major reasons behind a more regional service over a metro one.

- Better terminal relief - regional trains take longer to turn round, and as you would still have 24tph, you would take as many trains out of stations, but you also take the ones that would be there longer.
- More improved access to London - slow lines have better interchange with LU - eg Central line cross-platform at Stratford, SW suburbans at Wimbledon, whereas more regional ones stop at Surbiton.

Bad reasons for it are:

- "London gets everything, the rest of the SE should get something"
- One-off journeys - going to visit auntie on the opposite side of London, going to the airport (don't forget that Londoners have the same things as well). Clearly most of the traffic would be into-town journeys.

The reason why Crossrail serves Heathrow is because the City, West End and Docklands, which have a steady flow of business and touristic traffic from Heathrow, demanded it. Yes large amounts of Heathrow traffic comes from outside London, but there's a lot of places outside London - which ones would you serve? why is Colchester deserving, when the Medway Towns and Maidstone aren't within easy driving/cab distance from an Airport full stop (OK, they can get to Paris or Brussels via Ebbsfleet) - Colchester has Stansted. Both are a long way away from long haul airports.

Shows how ignorant you are - Romford-Ealing would involve a change, and isn't 10 miles. Romford to Ealing would still be easier under Crossrail, I guess though.It means that there's absolutely no point justifying a multi-billion pound project for a few people - even if everyone in Colchester did two long haul journeys a year, we're looking at less than half a million return journeys.Colchester-Heathrow is currently 2 change - why would giving an extra route Cross London suddenly double that?It would be just as hard to cross the Central area on Crossrail as on the tube.So why the Great Western Main Line? Also don't forget that Ealing and Romford and so on are big places - easily on a par with Swindon and Colchester, despite the latter's size.Shenfield has the vast amount of trains going near it stopping there. Maidenhead is rubbish - but it's not my job to justify it. Anyway, the many longer-distance trains that stop at Slough might change to stopping at Maidenhead, even if not, you can change at Slough and skip Burnham and Thatcham (likewise people would be more likely to change onto Crossrail at Stratford then Shenfield, saving them 10 minutes journey time spent stopped at Ilford, Gidea Park, etc)you're taking this out of conxtext, which was direct Heathrow/Gatwick trains... Maidstone isn't getting the Javelins, though, of course, the Medway Towns are. All the Javelin trains mean is that they can get to Central London faster - doesn't make Heathrow access better (I guess it becomes 1 change at Kings Cross, rather than one at the SR terminus and then again at Barons Court or Hammersmith - then again, if I had heavy bags, I'd want to do the District-Piccadilly option rather than go via Kings Cross, which would involve a long walk and far more change in vertical height at the interchange).

A final thought - have you accounted for the increase in cost by having to electrify further? What about the extra rolling stock? A handful of holiday makers won't justify it. You are using the wrong arguments - I explained that in my last post.

Clearly a more regional Crossrail won't happen now - we've had this one steamrollered through - it got momentum, so has to be built. It's wasteful and ill-thought-out, but it really is it or nothing (well, it or Crystal Palace tramlink, an undoing of the Metronet fiasco, a bucket load of small schemes that lost their funding as TfL's budget is basically devoured by Crossrail).