The Anonymous Widower

Does London Need A ‘Grand Paris Express’?

The Grand Paris Express is a plan to create an automated Metro, that goes all the way round Paris. Wikipedia says this.

Grand Paris Express is a project of new rapid transit lines to be created in the île-de-France region, in France. The work could begin in 2014, with the first line opening between Pont de Sèvres métro station and Gare de Noisy – Champs (fr) RER A station around 2020. This line was first proposed in the project Orbival, then integrated into the Arc Express project.

The French also seem to be moving on the project as is reported here in Global Rail News.

So does London need something similar?

If we look at Berlin, that has a circular railway around the city centre called the Ringbahn. It’s about the same size as the Circle Line, but differs in one big way; it has a parallel freight ring.

London also has the Overground,which is a great way to get round the city without going through the centre. Like the Berlin Ringbahn it also carries freight.

The Overground is not a Metro, as in Berlin or as Paris is proposing, but a full-size railway, with not as high a frequency, as you’d get on a tube or metro line. However, the Overground does share a lot of objectives with the Grand Paris Express.

But those creative minds at Transport for London have proposed something similar to the Grand Paris Express in their Transport Infrastructure Plan for 2050. It’s a plan to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking Line under the Thames from Barking to Abbey Wood and then by means of existing lines take the trains around London via Sutton, Wimbledon, Hounslow, Old Oak Common to Gospel Oak. I documemted the route in full in these posts.

London’s plan differs from that of Paris in one big way, as it only requires one expensive piece of new infrastructure, which is the tunnel from Barking to Thamesmead. The main factor that will make London’s plan possible is that in a few years, all trains will have in-cab signalling, so slotting in the new Overground services on existing lines, will be a lot easier.

The title of the French proposal sums it up. It contains the word Grand and that is what it is.

London may take a much more mundane and affordable step-by-step approach, but it means that you don’t have to wait years to get the benefits you need now.

September 20, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Berlin, London Overground, London Transport Plan 2050, Paris Metro