No. How would a sleeper service make a through connection at Waterloo more likely?
Yes, it seems a 'low cost' Crossrail 3.
OK, not necessarily just sleeper services but anything from the South or South West is 'land-locked by Waterloo at the moment.
It wouldn't have a low cost though and is somewhat unnecessary.
Waterloo has a lot of platforms though and essentially the number of trains than can run into it is constrained by the approach lines as well.
Define low-cost? You're building a running line through the concourse of Waterloo station. That's going to take a bit of work. Surely if you want to connect the South-West to the continent with a through Sleeper train then running via Chertsey and Calling at Clapham Junction before taking the connecting lines to Brixton would be an easier solution?
www.londonreconnections.com
It's a very convenient connection from the South West to Kent services today, avoiding a tube transfer. I doubt the numbers making such an interchange would ever be sufficient to justify linking the networks and there would be increased risk, especially for longer distance routes, of performance pollution migrating between SW and SE. London, and its wider UK connections via tube, will always be the desired destination of the vast majority of passengers on both SW and SE.
The south west could also use Crossrail (as it would be late at night or early morning) and travel via North Kent to the tunnel in a very roundabout way.
Only if you were using the GWR route, and there was a reasonably fast service.
Where does the GWR Reading - Redhill route cross the SWR lines?
Guildford.
I was thinking mainly from the LSWR mainline. From GWR territory, via Reading - Guildford - Redhill is an option, but further changes at Redhill and Tonbridge and possibly Ashford are required for many destinations in the East of Kent, so that route can be slow and inconvenient. Probably better to go into Paddington and get the tube over to Victoria, Charing Cross, or London Bridge, unless you want to take advantage of cheaper 'not via London' fares where available..
For anybody east of at least Salisbury, even maybe Yeovil, it would be quickest to take SWR to London and change at either Clapham Junction and go to Victoria or stay on to Waterloo for Charing Cross services at Waterloo East. For routes served by HS1 services Clapham-Victoria-Victoria Line-St Pancras is quickest.
i think a few previous replies have missed the original question which seemed to be about facilitating through sleeper services from the SW. There’s also the border controls question that makes through services around GB unmanageable.
Probably, but I was wondering about a new route, not requiring any changes. (Maybe it should be a Speculative Idea?)
Although of all places in the UK, London St Pancras is still the only vaguely practical place in the UK to serve the Continent by sleeper train from, and is pretty easy to get to from the rest of the UK for a mid to late evening departure. Possibly the biggest economic barrier would be the relatively small quantity of very specialist and thus expensive new rolling stock required, suitable for operation through the Channel Tunnel. The expense compounds the general stock utilisation problem with sleepers; they can only make a single one-way journey per night.
Further reaches of East Kent certainly, Ashford and beyond. Possibly Medway Towns. Even if a similar or slightly shorter journey time on HS1, I'd prefer to avoid the tube transfer personally, and remember fares via St P are more expensive.
