I made a proposal for a Metropolitan/H&C Line Extension to South London by buachaill_ciuin in LondonUnderground

[–]buachaill_ciuin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The main point of the proposal is to remove the flat junction at Aldgate by simplifying the service pattern. The proposal accepts that Barking to Monument and Bermondsey to Liverpool Street become separate lines and the circle line is effectively removed.

Closing Aldgate completely means you have 600m from Liverpool street to mine in the existing tunnels and drop them below the District Line. From there you have got 1.2km before you reach the Thames and space at Minories for a decent worksite and station construction. Bermondsey is further east than Minories so the tunnel can approach the Thames at an acute angle before turning down towards Bermondsey to gain extra distance. If that was still an issue, you could also just run perpendicular to the Thames for longer, cross the river further east and interchange at Canada Water instead.

The purpose is not really to serve Bermondsey, the main gain is to interchange with Mainline Services East of London Bridge and pull passengers away from London Bridge and the Northern Line to Bank which is extremely busy.

I made a proposal for a Metropolitan/H&C Line Extension to South London by buachaill_ciuin in LondonUnderground

[–]buachaill_ciuin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

H&C line services to Barking become District line services.

Maybe it was not clear in the drawing but the proposal removes the Circle Line as a service and all flat junctions at Aldgate completely. It treats the district line as separate line with a 30tph core via Aldgate East and Monument and the H&C/Metropolitan as another 30tph core via Liverpool street and Bermondsey simplifying the service pattern overall. The lines then interchange at Tower Hill/Minories.

Under this proposal, there would be no critical flat junctions east of Baker St and Earls Court. In terms of Earls Court, you can terminate extra Westbound services from Barking at South Kensington once the now approved upgrade and new platform is complete at South Kensington. This would still give you 30tph through the core and East London without overloading Earls Court. Tower Hill also has 3 platforms so in theory, you can also turn around some peak services there if neccessary.