M25 - Infrastructure/economic bias towards N/S/W sections?

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Vierwielen
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Re: M25 - Infrastructure/economic bias towards N/S/W sections?

Post by Vierwielen »

mistral wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 19:21 ... snip ...

Unfortunately, public transport to places like Heathrow, Gatwick & Bracknell from many of the towns mentioned above is even worse now than it was in the 2000s. With no reasonable prospect of any orbital rail lines getting built to relieve the pressure on the motorway, it seems that we'll just have to chug on as we're doing right now for a little while longer!
I second that. I spent about three years commuting on a fortnightly basis to Germany, Netherlands and Italy. Getting from NE Hants to Heathrow was a right pain. In fact, my favourite airport was London City. The Docklands Light Railway and the Jubilee Line provided a frequent connection to Waterloo from which I had a reliable half-hourly journey home. Heathrow was a nightmare - the coach link to Woking was totally unreliable with a constant threat of a hold-up on the M25 while the railway from Gatwick to the Hampshire/Surrey/Berks border area was not particularly convenient for me.
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Lockwood
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Re: M25 - Infrastructure/economic bias towards N/S/W sections?

Post by Lockwood »

But we have a problem building new railways as well. Build a rail link to try and get modal shift for commuters and everyone complains about London centric development.

Has there been a significant transport plan in recent (or not so recent) years where the majority public opinion has been "yeah, sounds good. That would be useful."?
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trickstat
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Re: M25 - Infrastructure/economic bias towards N/S/W sections?

Post by trickstat »

Lockwood wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 22:38 But we have a problem building new railways as well. Build a rail link to try and get modal shift for commuters and everyone complains about London centric development.

Has there been a significant transport plan in recent (or not so recent) years where the majority public opinion has been "yeah, sounds good. That would be useful."?
Hence Crossrail 2 probably never happening.

A circular line linking Heathrow with the London-Brighton line and the main lines entering the SW quadrant of London would greatly improve Heathrow connectivity but will never happen.
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KeithW
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Re: M25 - Infrastructure/economic bias towards N/S/W sections?

Post by KeithW »

Lockwood wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 22:38 But we have a problem building new railways as well. Build a rail link to try and get modal shift for commuters and everyone complains about London centric development.

Has there been a significant transport plan in recent (or not so recent) years where the majority public opinion has been "yeah, sounds good. That would be useful."?
Well there was Crossrail which is running seriously late and very over budget, this not apt to boost confidence in big infrastructure projects.

There is a structural/organisational problem with regard to London and railways.

TfL basically concerned with getting commuters in and out of London.
The mainline railway companies are interested in getting passengers to and from other destinations such as Brighton, Peterborough, Bristol etc.

If the DfT gets interested in transport within or around London then you have a turf war. At present TfL have a project called the West London Orbital railway . Its stated aims are

1) Support the creation of up to 15,800 new homes
2) Reduce journey times for public transport journeys across west and northwest London, and connect people to jobs across the area
3) Alleviate crowding on congested rail and Tube lines
4) Offer much-needed transport alternatives to encourage people to shift to sustainable transport and improve air quality

For obvious reasons they have no intention or incentive to consider options that dont go into London.
Last edited by KeithW on Thu May 19, 2022 08:41, edited 1 time in total.
Herned
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Re: M25 - Infrastructure/economic bias towards N/S/W sections?

Post by Herned »

Lockwood wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 22:38 Has there been a significant transport plan in recent (or not so recent) years where the majority public opinion has been "yeah, sounds good. That would be useful."?
I would hazard a guess that most transport improvements have the support of the majority. Its just that a small noisy minority shouts their mouths off about them - look at all the nonsense about LTNs and the results in the recent local elections. I bet even HS2 has much more support than the impression you would get from the media.

Delays to things like Crossrail are forgotten pretty much as soon as they are opened, just look at the Jubilee Line. Unfortunately it seems some of the lessons get forgotten too, but that's partly because we build infrastructure in such a piecemeal way
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