Crossrail

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martint235

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
So really you just want HS2 instead of Crossrail and somehow want trains to run from every city of any size in the UK directly to all other cities in the UK and Europe.
No I want big cities connected to big cities by big high speed trains. You then connect small cities to big cities by smaller high speed trains. You then connect towns to cities by smaller trains. I believe it's called a network.

If you're going to spend billions you may as well do something better than connecting Wimbledon to Ally Pally
 
No I want big cities connected to big cities by big high speed trains. You then connect small cities to big cities by smaller high speed trains. You then connect towns to cities by smaller trains. I believe it's called a network.

If you're going to spend billions you may as well do something better than connecting Wimbledon to Ally Pally

Sorry you have completely lost me now.
You started off wanting everything connected to everything else with one train that somehow runs from Glasgow to London but then turns into a tube train before then going on to Paris (and about 500 similar trains running to each major city in Europe direct) and you supported this with your complaint that you would have to change trains at the moment.
Now you seem quite happy with the existing system of local trains, high speed trains and underground trains and the concept of changing from one to the other.
I think you will find that this is what we presently have.
 
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martint235

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
Sorry you have completely lost me now.
You started off wanting everything connected to everything else with one train that somehow runs from Glasgow to London but then turns into a tube train before then going on to Paris (and about 500 similar trains running to each major city in Europe direct) and you supported this with your complaint that you would have to change trains at the moment.
Now you seem quite happy with the existing system of local trains, high speed trains and underground trains and the concept of changing from one to the other.
I think you will find that this is what we presently have.
Other people seem to have grasped my point so I guess it's just you that's lost.

My point is why dig a £30bn tunnel under London just to run a glorified tube train when you could use it as part of an extended network to ease the high speed passage of people from the UK regions and mainland Europe. You seem content for your money to be used in this way though so either you live in Wimbledon or you're happy getting off a comfortable high speed train, walking to and getting on a slow tube train, getting off and walking to another comfortable high speed train just because you're trying to not go to London.
 
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mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Take a look at this schematic map - http://www.projectmapping.co.uk/Resources/RailNetMap 8.9D.pdf - and consider: what's the only English city with principal services leaving in oppsite directions but none of them connected?

The best it gets is places where spokes from very different directions meet (St Pancras and Waterloo) but there are no services between their two spokes - physically impossible IIRC.
 

mcshroom

Bionic Subsonic
The lines all stopped at the edge of London IIRC. They weren't allowed into the city proper when they were being built, that's what LU was for.

Also each terminus was built by a different rival private rail company, so there was no interest in connecting up with the competition.
 

subaqua

What’s the point
Location
Leytonstone
I guess that is because London was already too big to drive lines clear across when railways were being built.


and somebody not fully understanding the severity of the beeching and post beeching cuts .

there are actually quite a lot of interconnects across the capital , but passenger services don't run on them , they are mainly freight fitted in between passenger services ( hence why you get unexplained delays in service)

North south is the most dire though.
 
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martint235

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
The lines all stopped at the edge of London IIRC. They weren't allowed into the city proper when they were being built, that's what LU was for.

Also each terminus was built by a different rival private rail company, so there was no interest in connecting up with the competition.
Which is why we should be using the £30bn to correct a wrong not just make another pointless line.
 

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
There was the proposed Nightstar service but that was cancelled in 1997. There's been a decrease in sleeper services across Europe in the past 10-20 years as well, which is a pity. People seem to prefer to fly.
We've just booked the Thello sleeper from Milan to Paris for 304 euros (152 euros each). It takes about eleven hours. You have to accept that this is a minority interest.

Over the years I've taken sleeper trains from Paris to Venice, from Milan to Barcelona, from Boulogne to Perpignan, from Cologne to Hoek and up and down the UK. (Oh, and Vladivostok to Moscow, Leningrad and Helsinki, and, then again, Montreal to Vancouver). They're wonderful, but, one by one, european sleeper services are closing as daytime services speed up - I believe that there are now none in Germany.

The standout exception is that the sleeper to Scotland has come down in price and you can book twelve months in advance. I cannot recommend the service to Inverness highly enough.

As for cross-London links - those left wing conspirators who joined Transport 2000 (an offshoot of Homes Before Roads) in the early 70s and campaigned for the re-opening of the Snow Hill Tunnel were told it would never happen. We can now look at the Thameslink service and the regeneration of 'Midtown' with something approaching satisfaction.

800px-Blackfriars_snow_hill_RJD_1.jpg
 

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
I love train travel and sleeper trains.

It's the big 50 for me next year... and Mr R is taking me to India, where we shall spend three weeks indulging in train travel, including several sleepers and the Shimla hill railway.
Your timing could not be better. The re-opening of the Iranian Embassy brings Teheran within reach!
http://www.orientbahn-reisen.de/de/aktuelles/#turkey-to-iran-train

Bear in mind that you may have to get off the Shimla train on some of the steeper inclines and run along beside the tracks. Adrian will demand to see the video!
 

Joey Shabadoo

My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
There was the proposed Nightstar service but that was cancelled in 1997. There's been a decrease in sleeper services across Europe in the past 10-20 years as well, which is a pity. People seem to prefer to fly.

I would love to be able to visit my parents in Benidorm by train because my wife cannot fly. However, by plane it's £119 return from Glasgow compared to £619 by train. Each.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
I would love to be able to visit my parents in Benidorm by train because my wife cannot fly. However, by plane it's £119 return from Glasgow compared to £619 by train. Each.
£318 each Glasgow-Alicante on loco2.com via the Paris-Toulouse sleeper so either the last Alicante-Benidorm leg is very expensive or I've missed something. Still too much more expensive, though

It also takes a long time, which includes an hour farting around in London (high speed tunnels now!), 90 minutes farting around Paris (which I think has the same problem as London, due to similar reasons), 1h20 poor connection in Toulouse and 40 minutes changing in Barcelona because there's no high-speed services along the coast yet... it's currently under construction (and actually a good use of EU money IMO as it's more useful for us than most of Spain).
 

Joey Shabadoo

My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
£318 each Glasgow-Alicante on loco2.com via the Paris-Toulouse sleeper so either the last Alicante-Benidorm leg is very expensive or I've missed something. Still too much more expensive, though

It also takes a long time, which includes an hour farting around in London (high speed tunnels now!), 90 minutes farting around Paris (which I think has the same problem as London, due to similar reasons), 1h20 poor connection in Toulouse and 40 minutes changing in Barcelona because there's no high-speed services along the coast yet... it's currently under construction (and actually a good use of EU money IMO as it's more useful for us than most of Spain).


Ah I just used https://secure.uk.voyages-sncf.com/ which seem to be linked to Trainline.

I quite like sleepers though, but I don't use the cabins. Edinburgh - London is always very quiet and you can get a full bench seat to crash out on.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Ah I just used https://secure.uk.voyages-sncf.com/ which seem to be linked to Trainline.
Yeah, using SNCF directly seems to be the international rail equivalent to phoning up British Airways and asking for a flight ticket that you'll pay for on 30 day invoicing :-( Maybe one day they'll realise that their failure to offer the best tickets puts people off train travel.
 
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