Meet the Morgan Line

This posting is rather a change for us and slightly different from what this blog might normally run, as its about a proposed line rather than anything that is being built or is part of TfL's offical plans. To this end, this is definitely more of a "What If..." discusion than actual reporting. An opportunity to think less about the money or politics and more about an for helping transport Londoners around in an ideal situation.

So I would like to introduce to you to the Morgan Line. The line would run from North West London to south West London providing a brand new link and servicing areas of London that have been historically lacking a Tube or Tube-like service. Various concept images and even some basic designs for the trains that would run this service can be found on my flickr account here.

The Basics

The idea actually is based on Crossrail's idea of linking seperate suburban rail routes into London via a tunnelled section. The core of the route is Crossrail 2, aka the Hackney-Chelsea Line, from Dalston Junction to Clapham Junction. The Line seems ripe for development and could futher reduce overcrowding in the areas it passes through.

Chingford seems a good fit as it lies in an almost straight line from Dalston Junction and is a busy urban rail route into London Liverpool Street. The line is crowded in the peaks and even though it connects to the Victoria Line at Walthamstow, it still needs relief or a greater service. something that can't easily be provided with the current Liverpool Street terminus and the trackwork past St James' Street.

At the southern end of the line, Strawberry Hill might prove a good fit because of the depot, as well as the Overground links at Richmond. It also allows better capcity for dealing with rugby events at Twickenham which current services struggle with. It would also help relieve Waterloo by taking some services away from the mainline station, allowing for some extra services on the metro routes.

The core of the route, as indicated, is the Hackney-Chelsea Line/Crossrail 2 which is designed to relieve the Victoria Line as well as the Northern. Relief would be felt at Waterloo, Liverpool Street, Victoria and Clapham Junction mainline stations.

Why The Morgan?

The Line is named after someone who nearly got his own Tube network. John Pierpont Morgan was a financier back 100 years ago at the height of the Tube boom -arguably the greatest US fanancier of his day. Like the more famous Yerkes (with whom Morgan shared a willingness to play dirty), he worked towards building his own network in London of tube railways. The network he proposed contained three lines,

• PC&NELR (Piccadilly and City & North East London Railway) from Hammersmith to Chase Side, Southgate via Cannon Street and Sloane Street
• C&NESER (City & North East Suburban Railway) From Waltham Abbey to Monument via Walthamstow and Hackney
• LUER (London United Electric Railway) from Marble Arch to Clapham Junction via Sloane Street
  

The Morgan group fell apart due to infighting, which destroyed any chance of the lines being built. Impressively that infighting was largely the work of Yerkes - Morgan's plans for the PC&NELR depended in part on the efforts of another company, LUT, who would be responsible for the line between Hammersmith and Hyde Park. In order to scupper his opponent's plans, Yerkes promptly bought a controlling interest in LUT preventing Morgan from being able to guarantee completion of his line. Without this crucial linchpin, Morgan's plans soon fell behind Yerkes'.

Had Morgan got his his way, the Piccadilly would have originally run from Hammersmith to Tottenham and the Victoria Line wouldn't probably not have been needed, apart from extending the Piccadilly to Walthamstow. The Jubilee was originally planned to relieve the Fleet Street corridor and may not have got the funding. Its more likely that the LUER line would have taken over the Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo to relieve that line.

The network would be very different to what we know today, with a West London Tube line and - had Morgan fulfilled his promises to Parliament - all night tube services.

More on the 'Tube Wars' of 100 years ago can be found in London's Lost Tube Schemes.

Airtrack

With BAA looking forward to openning T5 next month, I thought it time to look at the £400m Airtrack scheme. The Airtrack scheme is a heavy rail link from Heathrow T5 on the western side. The idea would be to link T5 to Staines then onwards to Waterloo in the east or Reading & Guildford in the west. They have already built two platforms at T5 for the exclusive use by Airtrack. £5m of funding has been raised for the Transport & Works Act. Most of the scheme uses existing railways up to Staines, where remodelling of the station will be needed for the service. Once north of Staines the Airtrack will branch off to run along with the M25. It then goes underground and turns east to meet the T5 station. Currently the aim is that services will start in 2013. BAA have a good history as T5 came in under budget and was finished before the deadline, so maybe we'll get to see this service soon (unlike Crossrail and Hackney & Chelsea lines which have taken decades). There is also long term plans for Airtrack from TfL as they are looking at extending Crossrail Line 1 from Heathrow along Airtrack. What is curious is that Reading is one of the terminal points for Airtrack and it still possible for Crossrail. It could provide Crossrail with a secondly route from Reading into Central London via Heathrow providing a useful link as well as free space up for Waterloo. Note as well that Tfl and BAA are in talks as Heathrow Connect service is likely to be eaten up by Crossrail, keeping Heathrow Express as a seprate product with premium fares to match this. Clapham Junction is also a possible link for Hackney & Chelsea line (aka Crossrail 2) so it could be routed to servce Heathrow from Clapham then onwards to North East London. With a link to the Lea Valley lines Crossrail 2 could run from Heathrow to Stansted via Central London, filling the role of national links instead of using planes for local travel. I won't mention Crossrail 3 (rumoured to be Waterloo to Euston). Fanasty maybe, with with the development of Crossrail, Thameslink and now Airtrack, you never quite know where we are going but this is one way to provide additional travel opitions on new lines. Bit like what the Underground did in the early 20th century. The 21st is to take regional lines to nice big tunnels with the ability to cope with future growth.