Sidelines

<Sidelines home » Archives » September 2009

jonny come latelys
Suddenly everybody's got an opinion on new high speed rail capacity. It's a dangerous time; people like Christian Wolmar with depth of understanding are being drowned out by jonny come latelys trotting out their support for the idea with glib and highly questionable assumptions. Unfortunately, these won't be people who are hanging around to see others point out the complexities.

It's been said before, and it's worth saying again: there are still huge gains to be had, including in speed and capacity, in ironing out bottlenecks, signalling problems etc in the existing system. These might not be glamourous election promises, but might it not be a good idea for commentators to get an understanding of the network as a whole before jumping in with their rabble-rousing support.
[link]

simple ideas
Here's a simple but great idea that made it into the specialist transport press but deserves wider recognition. Stations on London's new Crossrail east-west tunnels will be built on humps. This will allow less energy to be used in braking coming into stations and acceleration leaving stations. An additional benefit is that less heat will be produced in the tunnels, helping to keep the stations cool
[link]