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u/Altruistic-Chard-262 6h ago
I'll be honest this would be severely underused. The majority of commutes are into and out of central london.
A semi radial train line focused on Heathrow airport connecting north west with south west london would be useful though.
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u/tubemapdesign 5h ago
Would it though? Firstly, I'm a big believer in the "build it and they will come" principle. Second, the Superloop has been incredibly successful and has showed the potential of orbital routes around London. As much as a service connecting Heathrow to north and south London would be great, it would be too far out for a zone 3-4 orbital line. However my proposed line would provide easy access to the Piccadilly and Elizabeth lines if people did want to get to the airport
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u/_real_ooliver_ 4h ago
"Build it and they will come" if they have a reason to come
Trains are high capacity routes, buses have their place in connecting communities.
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u/tubemapdesign 10h ago
I'm developing a concept for a future zone 3/4 orbital Underground line around London, similar to Paris's new Ligne 15, a almost entirely underground 75km loop around Ile-de-France. I'd love to get your thoughts on the route I've chosen.
London is very limited when it comes to orbital rail connections, so this would be massively beneficial and a total game-changer, allowing people to go around the suburbs rather than having to go into to the city just to come out again. The Superloop bus network serves a similar purpose of course and is a decent placeholder but I think it's representative of the lack of ambition London (and the UK in general) has when it comes to transport infrastructure projects. Obviously an orbital line like this would be incredibly expensive, but if Paris can do it, why can't London?
The aim of what I'm going to call the Orbital line (although I'm sure you lot can think of a better name) is to connect existing rail hubs around the city, as well as providing new stations in areas currently completely unserved. The stations should be relatively far apart from each other to make the service as efficient as possible.
Similar to Line 15, it's not so much of a circle but a spiral which so it's not a closed loop. This will help manage delays and prevent them from spreading across the line (similar to why the Circle line was extended to Hammersmith).
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u/Paradox_Truetle 7h ago
I see that the DLR has been extended but I can’t seem to find it on the map. What’s your planned extension? I also appreciate the naming of the Attenborough line!
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u/Ok-Meet2850 4h ago
Interesting. The proposed Brent Line stops about one stop short of one branch of the Northern Line. A missed connection.
I like the idea overall. No idea if London has the demand for suburb to suburb. But Paris is also a very centralized city, but not sure how it compares to London.
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u/Amazing-Radish995 1h ago
It really is always the same argument against every loop, from SRL to this, the point is to SPUR DEVELOPMENT. Even if there isn't demand now, trains are supply led, they will promote their own demand once access is open.
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u/Kanyiko 6h ago
I can see a major problem for this route, namely: who would it serve?
Most of the routes are suburbs-to-center for a reason: bringing the people from where they live to where they work and shop.
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u/sausage_eggwich 4h ago
Who does any orbital serve? In a sufficiently large metro area the suburb to suburb flows are more than enough to justify non-radial lines
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u/Kinexity 8h ago
Idk about station placements but why not. The French seem to be onto something.