R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

London
Our proposals will
enable Heathrow–
Paddington services
to be extended
around the northern
side of the Circle
Line to the City
100
8.3
Our plan would change this (see Diagram B above).It
includes:
• f u rther improvements to the Thameslink route, p e rm i t t i n g
increased frequency from eight to 24 trains per hour in
each direction and providing direct services to many
more stations.
• p o s s i ble integration of London Underg r o u n d ’s surface
lines with Railtra c k ’s netwo rk with
the option of direct access between the curr e n t
ove rground netwo rk and the City.
• creating a new southern link to Heathrow A i rp o rt . T h e
A i rt rack development would open up the possibility of
increasing the number of trains serving the airp o rt from 4
to 16 per hour.
• d e velopment of the East London Line to offer new
cross-London opport u n i t i e s .
• completion of Phase 2 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link
( C T R L ) .
• d e veloping major integrated public tra n s p o rt hubs in and
around London with advanced customer facilities
including airline check-in and luggage-handling where
a p p r o p ri a t e, including London Wa t e rl o o,V i c t o ri a ,
Clapham Junction,Wa t ford Junction and Wo k i n g .
8.3 London Underground integration
The Government has indicated that it wishes to see private
capital invested in London Underground.The first moves
have already been made towards a public–private
partnership (PPP).The PPP is intended to establish a clear
split in responsibilities between London Underground,who
will operate the train service, and three infrastructure units,
who will be responsible for delivering to the operator the
physical infrastructure on which the trains will run.
We have made it clear that we believe that there are
major advantages in integrating certain areas of the
underground operation with national rail services to increase
dramatically the number of passengers who can reach their
destination in London without changing trains.
The diagram on page 99 illustrates how this might be
achieved.The key elements to our proposals are:
• enabling Heathrow–Paddington services to be extended
around the northern side of the Circle Line to the City
and beyond.
• using the northern half of the Circle Line to link East
and West London suburban services to provide through
journeys such as Barking–Reading.
• in the longer term,using the southern half of the Circle
Line to link Essex and South West London suburban
services.This would provide such through services as
Southend–Woking.
• integrating Underground and suburban network services
over the East London Line to create journey
opportunities such as East Croydon to the City, and
Wimbledon to the North London Line.