You do? Well, cross rail has been looked at since at least the late 1980s. It is been subject to numerous reports, parliamentary bills, scrutiny, feasibility studies and examination from some of the best economists and transport professionals we have. In fact it's been going on so long that there can't be many more 'pre-studies' done on any similar scheme anywhere in the world.
Could you link me to the studies please. All I see on the crossrail website is detail about the routes they've already chosen. And this doesn't even go as far as Reading, leaving doubt as to whether the trains are going to go to Reading. So crossrail will have trains from the east terminating at Paddington, and trains serving maindenhead - reading and beyond still terminating at Paddington. The shame! I take it the oxford trains that call at some relief line stations will have to call at them all or be stuck behind crossrail trains. What about freight?
And your qualifications and argument for this is, what exactly? What is your alternative plot to acute overcrowding and rising population and the needs of business to be linked into new areas?
Either:
a) A brand new and cheaper underground line which could indeed serve canary wharf in the east, and head on to the serve the thames gateway development. Acquiring the Shenfield metro would be possible in the same way that the metropolitan line trains can share tracks with chiltern trains but may not be practical given the freight which also uses the lines. Forest Gate Junction junction is a huge bottleneck for crossrail too.
Central Line style ATO could provide a greater capacity than crossrail, especially DLR moving block on a greater scale.
Is there any evidence that people on the shenfield branch are dissatisfied with the service? It's hardly a difficult change at straford for the central, and once some of these trains would have continued down metropoliton metals towards paddington.
In the West we have trouble using the relief lines and indeed earlier proposals of serving towards watford junction or amersham may have been better. However this is still serving existing areas.
b) I don't want to bore you with explaining what Superlink propose. But I personally would like to see a "thameslink 2000" style tunnel through London, serving Canary Wharf, London Liverpool street, Bank or Farringdon, KXSP (too important not to serve imp, and worth the awkward banana-shaping of the line), Bond Street/Oxford Circus and then Paddington. The line ought to run fast to Heathrow taking over Heathrow Express (paths) to provide a decent service from Canary Wharf, the city and the West End. As well as Thameslink 2000 customers with one change.
This basic system could have any number of branches added on bit by bit. A tunnel could take CTRL Domestic trains via Canary Wharf. Superlink proposes links all the way to Shenfield and Sawbridgeworth which is very sensible forward thinking for adding to the capacity of the network rail network. In the West there's the Airtrack proposal to link Heathrow to the Southern Network. Passengers from all over the region will be able to travel to Canary Wharf and Heathrow with a through train, in the same way they can reach their central London Terminal. We've once carried luggage through the H&C line from liverpool street to paddington and have decided that it's not worth the hassle. Heathrow currently suffers from lack of rail connections from outside London, and there is a congestion problem on the roads, so it would be stupid not to do something.
With plan b) and Thameslink 2000, the Railway could potentially allow a lot of cross London journeys on commuter routes to be taken without using the tube and with a single change. Intercity customers arriving at Liverpool Street, KXSP and Paddington can easily change onto the Network.
Which of those use the railway at least once a week, and go to London many times a year by train?
Futhermore I bet if my proposal b) and crossrail's proposal was sent round to everyone in the London and the South-East. ("Crossrail is an exciting and visionary new railway proposal for London and the South-East."), I think most would support proposal b).
