Network Rail Plans Another Tunnel Into Heathrow
We may not build the tunnel boring machines any more, but we certainly know how to dig holes better than most, as Crossrail is showing.
We also seem blessed with a geology that in many places, has the consistency of Emmental cheese.
So it is not a surprise that a news item in Modern Railways has reported that Network Rail are planning on creating the access into Heathrow from the West using a 5 km tunnel from between Iver and Langley to the airport.
This Google Earth map shows the area.
Langley To Heathrow
The blue line is the Piccadilly Line at the airport and the red arrow indicates Langley station. Iver station is towards London just before the M25. I would assume that the new tunnel will vaguely follow the M25 and link up to the airport at Terminal 5. It would probably be dug from Langley with a lot of the route directly under the motorway, so the work would not affect any sensitive sites.
I doubt it’s a plan, that will stir up much opposition, except in the area, where it leaves the Great Western Main Line. This Google Earth image shows the area in detail.
Langley And Iver
A quick look at this image, would appear to show that it’s mainly farmland with no housing, for quite a bit of the way between Langley and Iver stations.
Another plus point of this plan, is that the Class 345 trains being developed for Crossrail could probably be used on the new line to connect it to Reading and/or Oxford, if the Heathrow station was built to Crossrail dimensions and standards.
It is in some ways a pity, that Crossrail wasn’t designed to go to Terminal 5 at the airport and then on to Reading in the first place. But then some of the design of the western end of Crossrail had more to do with making sure that British Airways and Heathrow Airport didn’t get upset. It doesn’t matter if they do, as they are secondary to all the passengers and staff who use the airport. After all if the passengers aren’t happy with Heathrow, after Crossrail/Thameslink opens, they can easily get to Gatwick and Luton.
I think that this is a very sound plan and if it could be routed to serve all terminals at Heathrow by perhaps going back-to-back with the current Crossrail line being built to the airport, we’d get a much better service to London’s main airport.
So if we end up with effectively a new Crossrail loop line, that leaves the Great Western at Airport Junction, goes round all the Heathrow terminals and then after Terminal 5 connects to the Great Western between Langley and Iver, what are the consequences.
1. The plan rectifies the big fault of Crossrail not serving Terminal 5.
2. It gives passengers what they want. Going to any terminal at Heathrow from either the West or London, you just get on a Crossrail train that is using the Heathrow loop line and get off at Terminal 1/2/3, Terminal 4 or Terminal 5. Some journeys to Heathrow now sometimes need a change of train at the airport.
3. Crossrail will be used to transfer between terminals.
4. A plan like this, is the last nail in the coffin of Heathrow Express, which will probably be on permanent life support after Crossrail opens anyway. Another nail will be driven, when Old Oak Common station opens as a major transport interchange.
5. When Heathrow Express is dropped, Network Rail will be pleased, as it will free up two platforms at Paddington, for long distance services to Wales and the West Country.
6. There will also be new platform space at Heathrow Terminal 4 and 5, as if all Crossrail trains to Heathrow are going straight through, there will be no need for terminal platforms under the airport. These platforms could be used for the new Crossrail loop line.
7. All rail traffic to and from the Airport will be controlled by Transport for London. This can only be a good thing for reasons that are too numerous to list.
8. British Airways will be livid at the loss of Heathrow Express and the handing of all rail transport to TfL. So be it! There are lots of other airlines!
9. Heathrow Airport may or may not be expanded. But surely a rail line passing under most of the airport would be much easier to fit into new terminals.
10. If you are going to Heathrow 123 today from Tottenham Court Road station, it takes 55 minutes by tube all the way. The Crossrail journey should take 30 minutes and it will be fully accessible. I doubt that Transport for London would close the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow, but I can see it becoming a very quiet way of getting to and from Heathrow.
So I think it is true to say that creating a direct tunnelled link into Heathrow from the West should please everybody, except those who feel that the dinosaur that is Heathrow Express should be preserved.
Islington’s Eyesore
Archway is once of those places on the London tube map, which unless you know someone who lives there or has unfortunately found themselves in the local hospital, has nothing iconic to be worth visiting.
I went to have a drink with a friend, who lives within five hundred metres of the Underground station and took these pictures.
I should say that Archway suffers from the same problem that afflicts the bus station at London Bridge station because of the station’s proximity to The Shard. Lots of wind and today, that was cold wind, that makes walking around the area challenging.
I met my friend in the Gate cafe in the middle of the roundabout and that was a pleasant oasis in one of the bleakest areas of London. Archway even makes the old Elephant and Castle and Vauxhall Cross roundabouts, look to be award-winning architecture.
If ever a traffic intersection, was designed by a team of sadists with all the design flair of one of the North Korean dictators, it is this one.
I would like to see the following happen.
1. Archway Tower should be taken down, as it creates too much wind. Incidentally, the Wikipedia entry for the building doesn’t name an architect for the 1963 building. I can’t find one anywhere on the Internet.Perhaps, he was too ashamed of his creation and wanted to save his reputation, by not having it on his record.
Sadly, if it can’t be taken down, then clever engineers at somewhere like Farnborough or a top class university, should be given a brief to sort out the dodgy aerodynamics of the tower.
2. I crossed from the tube station, after arriving by bus, to the middle island where the Archway Tavern sits and it was a long walk round over three separate sets of pedestrian lights. There should be a subway, but my friend told me that was closed some time ago.
3. The traffic patterns must be sorted out, as it was always a bad area for driving.
4. The disused cinema that my friend says has graced the area for forty-four years, should be used as rubble elsewhere!
It will be impossible that when the improvement scheme is completed, that a vast improvement will not have been achieved.
Sunderland Port Gets A Rail Connection
I’m all for freight traffic to be on the railways, even if it sometimes means that noisy and smelly freight trains pass through residential areas. But on the plus side, I’ve seen how rail improvements connecting the Port of Ferlixstowe to the wider rail network, has taken so much traffic off the busy A14. It is my belief, that one of the best ways to increase motorway capacity, is to remove as much long distance freight as possible.
DB Schenker obviously want to promote rail freight for commercial reasons and they seem to be backing a lot of new rail developments like the Northern Hub.
So I was not surprised to see the company very much behind the re-opening of a rail link into the Port of Sunderland, as reported in this piece in Modern Railways. DB Schenker’s spokesman says this.
‘Ports play a crucial part in DB Schenker Rail’s growth strategy and we are delighted to bring rail back to Port of Sunderland.
It will be interesting to see how busy this rail link becomes in the next few years.
Increasingly, these last mile rail links are being created or renewed. The only losers are probably the drivers of heavy good vehicles.
This small rail link has been renewed in an area that could see a lot of development in the next few years. This Google Earth map shows the rough route of the rail link along the coast.
The Durham Coast South Of Sunderland
Sunderland Port is marked by the two curved breakwaters at the top and the link joins the Durham Coast Line that runs from Newcastle via Sunderland and Hartlepool to Middlesbrough, at Ryhope Grange junction, which is near to the marked McDonalds.
The Durham Coast Line has an hourly service between Newcastle and Middlesbrough and also connects various ports and sites to the rail freight network. It is also used by Grand Central services between Sunderland and London and as a diversionary route for the East Coast Main Line. Local groups are also keen that the line be upgraded with a better passenger service between the Tyne, Wear and Tees areas.
In a sane world, this line would be a prime candidate for electrification linked to the East Coast Main Line at Newcastle and Darlington. A few points.
1. It would be an important electrified diversion for the increasingly crowded East Coast Main Line.
2. I suspect Grand Central and other East Coast Main Line operators are pushing for this electrification, as it would enable direct high speed services between Newcastle and London via Sunderland, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough.
3. After the completed electrification of the Trans-Pennine routes, it would also improve services from towns and cities not on the East Coast Main Line to the western side of the Pennines.
However full electrification is probably not possible as the northern part of the line has been electrified for the Newcastle Metro to a different standard. But the new passenger trains like the Class 800 and new freight locomotives like the Class 88, would just switch to their on-board diesel power,
As an aside here, Tees Valley Metro, is being developed around Middlesbrough, in rather a stop-go fashion. Surely if the Durham Coast Line is electrified and that electrification is extended to Darlington and then perhaps on the Tees Valley Line to Bishops Auckland to serve both the National Railway Museum at Shildon and the Hitachi train factory at Newton Aycliffe. It would seem a bit mad to build a large factory to make electric trains and then have to haul them in-and-out with a diesel locomotive.
If nothing else, all of these options prove to me, that the North East should have a similar sort of autonomy as Greater Manchester is getting. That would enable the area to bring together all of the ideas about extending the transport system.
Looking at Wikipedia’s list of proposed rail infrastructure projects, these are in the North East.
Newcastle Station Redevelopment
Tyne And Wear Metro Developments
It’s not a long list. Other areas south of Hadrian’s Wall, like Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, London, Merseyside and Manchester have much better developed plans on the drawing board, even if they know some will be a long time coming.
I wonder if Department of Transport officials when talking to representatives from the North East, say to them, you’ve got an electrified railway to London, the Tyne and Wear Metro, rebuilding of Newcastle station and a brand new train factory, so what more do you want?
Surely, local elected representatives should decide what is best value to the communities they serve. No-one based outside an area, can ever know all of the subtle local reasons, why things should or should not be done. As an example, Greater Anglia’s stations in East London are managed from Norwich. I don’t think they manage them very well and not for good reason are most being put under the care of Transport for London.
Most transport in the North East should be under the control of a single body, so that the limited finances available will be better allocated.
The Bill Somebody Affair May Be Getting Serious
Ed Balls got his Bills all mixed up, as outlined in this article in The Independent entitled Bill Somebody: So who is Ed Balls’ mysterious Labour business supporter?
After watching George Galloway do a Daniel act in a den of Jewish lions on Question Time, I decided to see if billsomebody.com and billsomebody.co.uk have been registered.
One certrainly has and you can read it here.
It was registered yesterday!
The Anonymous Widower 