Thameslink West: an alternative to Crossrail 2?

Crossrail 1, the most expensive transport investment for over a century, has proved even costlier than anticipated or hoped for. Observing the complex city centre stations – with their vast sub-surface ticket halls, demolishing half a dozen buildings at five central London stations – indicates that the line would be expensive. Slim-down design of stations, without complex ticket halls and interchanges with the tube, and with simpler escalator access at either end of the stations, directly from above ground, may have proved better value for money. Crossrail 2 of similar design, but with even longer tunnels deeper into the relatively low density southern suburbs of the city, needs to be simplified and redesigned to maybe half the cost. Thameslink West is an alternative approach, building on a 1943-idea to build a deep rail tunnel between Battersea and Paddington via Victoria. Thameslink West complements the existing Thameslink (East).

Thameslink West
– Thameslink West consists of a 3 kilometre tunnel between Victoria and Marylebone, with new sub-surface stations, tunnel ramps at either end and an intermediate station at Bond Street.
– Thameslink West has 16 carriage long train platforms at the three new sub-surface stations and several new or remodelled on-surface stations such as Brockley, Battersea, Wembley Park, Brent Cross West, Tottenham Hale.
– The costs of the three below ground stations would be £1.5bn each, the tunnel another £1.5bn. Several new train line junctions would be provided in the north, including at Finchley Road, Kenton, Wembley, Harringay, Seven Sister, Tottenham and/or Walhamstow. The new junctions and on-surface stations would cost on average £50m each.
– In the north, Thameslink West would extend to destinations such as Stansted, Cambridge, Hertford, Stevenage, Luton, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury and Bicester. And in the south to destinations such as Dartford, Sevenoaks, Gatwick, Horsham, Guildford and Heathrow via Staines.
– At Brixton, Clapham North, Willesden Junction, West Hampstead, Harringay and/or Tottenham, Thameslink West will relieve the Victoria, Jubilee, Northern, Bakerloo, Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines. Providing extra capacity for up to 200.000 passengers an hour on the six lines together at peak hours, the equivalent of the capacity of half the north/south tube lines.
– With Thameslink West, fewer commuters will need to travel through stations such as Highbury & Islington, London Bridge, Stockwell, Vauxhall, Green Park, Paddington, Euston, Moorgate and Liverpool Street, reducing station overcrowding at peak hours.

Afterword
Thameslink West is an opportunity for London to do away with overcrowded pubic transport at a reasonable cost to the city and the nation. The Thameslink West & East both allow direct journeys i) into the centre from the suburbs, ii) between outer boroughs as well as iii) more capacity north-south within the Circle lines and Overground loop. With double long 16 carriage trains, 2500 passengers can travel every 150 seconds in either direction on either line. The Thameslink West will not solve overcrowding forever – but should together with an enhanced Thameslink East, an enhanced Overground loop and the new Elizabeth line –provide enough capacity for several decades to come. North-south and east-west as well as diagonally between the outer boroughs of the metropolis.

• Thameslink West: an alternative to Crossrail 2? (4p pdf)
• Planning in London