Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Ken refuses again to support the Hall Farm Curve
City Hall on the south bank of the Thames in London. 
At a Question Time session here in October, London Lib Dem Transport spokesman Geoff Pope asked the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone:
"Please update me on the progress you and Transport for London have made with Network Rail seeking to reopen the Hall Farm Curve".
The response from the Mayor was:
"The business case for the re-instatement of the link between Chingford and Stratford remains weak compared with other priorities for the improvement of National Rail services in north-east London".
The question was put after Geoff Pope was contacted on this issue by Waltham Forest Lib Dem Councillor John Beanse.
Cllr.John Beanse called the Mayor's response "depressingly curt and dismissive". He commented further: "It is a disgrace that the Mayor continues obstinately to refuse to back this scheme which could bring considerable benefit to the people of Waltham Forest.
This is not a massive scheme, in that it just requires the funding to relay and re-open the Hall Farm curve beyond St.James St. and then provide an extra rail service to Stratford, which would then become feasible. The new link would prove a valuable interchange with the Docklands Light Railway, the Central and Jubilee lines, plus overground services. The embankment for the curve is still there and passengers can see it as they travel between St.James St. and Clapton as a sorry reminder of what could be!
If we are serious about an "integrated transport system" in this country, this is just the sort of scheme that should be given the go-ahead.
There is now another dimension. Crossrail has been given the go-ahead. When it was first suggested, it was proposed that the CHINGFORD line should be linked in. (Specific in a 1989 document).
Sadly this is no longer the case. In fact the line has been re-routed via WHITECHAPEL, not the original route. (For more news, type Crossrail into box top left and then click on SEARCH BLOG alongside) This means that
a) in order to use Crossrail trains, passengers from Waltham Forest will have to change trains at Liverpool Street
b) the ONLY way the Chingford line could now ever be directly linked to the Crossrail tunnel (and that would be another battle) would be to get the Hall Farm curve in place first!
So Waltham Forest is losing out twice over and it is high time the Mayor took a more enlightened look at this issue."
At a Question Time session here in October, London Lib Dem Transport spokesman Geoff Pope asked the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone:
"Please update me on the progress you and Transport for London have made with Network Rail seeking to reopen the Hall Farm Curve".
The response from the Mayor was:
"The business case for the re-instatement of the link between Chingford and Stratford remains weak compared with other priorities for the improvement of National Rail services in north-east London".
The question was put after Geoff Pope was contacted on this issue by Waltham Forest Lib Dem Councillor John Beanse.
Cllr.John Beanse called the Mayor's response "depressingly curt and dismissive". He commented further: "It is a disgrace that the Mayor continues obstinately to refuse to back this scheme which could bring considerable benefit to the people of Waltham Forest.
This is not a massive scheme, in that it just requires the funding to relay and re-open the Hall Farm curve beyond St.James St. and then provide an extra rail service to Stratford, which would then become feasible. The new link would prove a valuable interchange with the Docklands Light Railway, the Central and Jubilee lines, plus overground services. The embankment for the curve is still there and passengers can see it as they travel between St.James St. and Clapton as a sorry reminder of what could be!
If we are serious about an "integrated transport system" in this country, this is just the sort of scheme that should be given the go-ahead.
There is now another dimension. Crossrail has been given the go-ahead. When it was first suggested, it was proposed that the CHINGFORD line should be linked in. (Specific in a 1989 document).
Sadly this is no longer the case. In fact the line has been re-routed via WHITECHAPEL, not the original route. (For more news, type Crossrail into box top left and then click on SEARCH BLOG alongside) This means that
a) in order to use Crossrail trains, passengers from Waltham Forest will have to change trains at Liverpool Street
b) the ONLY way the Chingford line could now ever be directly linked to the Crossrail tunnel (and that would be another battle) would be to get the Hall Farm curve in place first!
So Waltham Forest is losing out twice over and it is high time the Mayor took a more enlightened look at this issue."
# posted by John Beanse @ 10:59 AM 
