Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Gunnersbury Overcrowding and the Sky Shuttle Bus | |
Posted by: | Thomas Barry | |
Date/Time: | 25/04/15 09:48:00 |
""Angie Bray ... said that she and Mary Macleod had obtained a commitment that the Piccadilly line would stop at Turnham Green as soon as Crossrail was in place."" Perhaps they know something we don't, like Crossrail being delayed to 2025? Seriously, these people are either lying or stupid/desperate enough to believe what Boris and TfL say, which on many occasions is straightforward fiction. In this case it could be as simple as mishearing 'we'll start work when Crossrail's done' (which is probably about right, as if you start having big line closures you'll need Crossrail to take the overflow) as meaning that a complicated engineering project magically happens instantly, rather than over a period of several years. Crossrail delivers through trains from Ealing and points west to the Central London tunnel in December 2019, but before we get a TG stop, as Richard says, we'll additionally need to watch for the following milestones: - TfL finding the money from their existing government settlement, as central Government is not going to bail us out for TfL's screw up - Modern Railways suggests that this is done by pushing the start of the Deep Tube modernisation, which the Piccadilly is the first phase of, into the future and using the money freed up to pay for the £1.4bn overspend - contract tender for Piccadilly signalling (it's far from clear if this is included in the District Line plan, although it must now use the same system from the same control centre in Hammersmith) - contract tender for Piccadilly trains (all those lovely mock ups in the press are just for PR, there's no design or contract in place yet. London's not ordered a new Underground train since 2004). - bids for each - assessment of bids - negotiations to try and bring the cost down - contract awards - development of signalling and trains - the former should be a straightforward build-on from the Northern Line system, but the latter will be wholly new and take a while - about five years from contract to rolling trains, based on Victoria Line experience. - commissioning of signalling and trains - (probably) Platform Edge Doors at all Piccadilly stations, which is far from easy, but you need them for driverless trains - someone having the 'oh sh1t' moment when they realise the Night Tube plans mean you lose 2/7s of your working nights when you can install stuff, so everything takes longer. All of which still screams '2025 at the earliest' and even then I wouldn't bet much money on it. |