Hey guys, we've gone off on a bit of a tangent here! Can we try to bring it back closer to original question but with a small change. Alternative projects for up to £500m that would have brought greater benefits than Borders rail and why? A few have been mentioned and I appreciate that it may be tricky to estimate the cost but have a go!
OK I'll bite on this. The following are schemes that I'd like to see done, for which I'm
guessing any one of them could be done for less than £500m, and which, based on population levels in the affected areas, look to me like they would probably be used by many more passengers than Borders Rail. (I'm being careful with my words here: None of these give the benefit of opening up a whole new part of the country to the rail network, which I think is a significant but immeasurable benefit of Borders Rail, but if you want to measure 'benefit' solely by new passenger numbers, these should hopefully pass the test )
1. Extend from Blackpool South to Blackpool Central and tunnel through to Blackpool North, with suitable doubling to allow a metro-frequency service connecting most of Blackpool.
2. Reroute the Watford-St. Albans service into St. Albans City, and doubling/signalling, to allow a frequent Watford-Luton service, thereby connecting a huge population to the WCML. (Note: Full benefits would only arise once HS2 is built, allowing many more of the existing WCML services to call at Watford Junction).
3. Reopen High Wycombe-Bourne End. If space can be found for a flyover at Maidenhead (might need to be East of the station), use this to run through High Wycombe-Heathrow services once the Heathrow western spur is built. This also gives High Wycombe-Reading connectivity.
4 Track/signalling improvements between Marylebone and High Wycombe to allow metro frequency all-stops trains from Marylebone to West Ruislip/High Wycombe.
5. Extend the GOBLIN from the new Barking Riverside station to Thamesmead and Abbey Wood.