please empty your brain below

The junction from the Hounslow loop line to the North London line at Kew was used for passenger trains from 2000 until 2002 when Anglia railways ran the "London Crosslink" service from Basingstoke to Norwich. Diesel trains were used as the junction at Kew is not electrified.
It was a useful service, but very slow due to getting held up on the North London Line. Not advertised much and closed due to lack of passengers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Crosslink
I've often wondered why the existing overground line to Richmond isn't extended to Twickenham. This would free up extra platforms at Richmond for District line services to terminate, and crossing onto the Waterloo-Windsor line at the existing junction just prior to Richmond surely wouldn't affect South West Train services (which aren't ever likely to increase in number due to the many level crossings between Richmond and Barnes). The overground could then call at St Margaret's and terminate at the disused platforms 1 & 2 at Twickenham. As well as providing extra options for the 10-15 major events at the stadium each year, plus the 15-20 smaller events at the harlequins ground, this would also prove a popular option for some of the commuters who are often unable to board SWT services at peak times, even with the additional carriages they're currently bringing in. Rather than terminating at Twick the overground could carry slightly further on towards Kingston, Shepperton or Feltham for the heathrow airport bus link... Or of course head down the Hounslow loop as you've described. None of this would require additional track so could be done for the cost of a few extra trainsets, which I'm sure vince cable could help find the money for as a Twickenham commuter and MP. Might even be something the RFU would contribute towards and for which funds can be squeezed out of quins when they apply to increase their capacity from 14,000 to 20,000 in the next few years.
@James
The SWT route between Richmond and Twickenham is very busy (12tph in the peaks) and wouldn't be able to take the extra traffic from the North London line.
At present you can only transfer between LO and SWT tracks by reversing in platform 3, which has no access to the Twickenham direction without reversing a second time, so you would also require either reinstatement of the flat junction east of Richmond station (and a flat junction would severely restrict the number of trains that could pass) or build a flyover: like the one that was proposed when Crossrail 1 was going to go to Kingston, and opposition to which is the reason it doesn't.
Absolutely amazed you managed it in just four hours. I'm pretty sure it's taken me that long to get from Dulwich to Lewisham before now.
Four hours, including the walk from Kew Brdge to Gunnersbury, does seem close to the minimum it could be done in.

According to TfL's Journey Planner you can close the circle in about 45 minutes via West Ham, Canning Town and Woolwich Arsenal, or 70 minutes via Cannon Street (and you might improve on that if you choose to get a C2C to Fenchurch Street and walk the ten minutes or so to London Bridge)

Apart from the cross-river link in the east the whole route already exists, although it is not possible to drive a train all the way round because of the lack of a crossover between the two routes at Peckham. You would also need to reverse at Twickenham, and again at Brent Cross (unless the proposed station is at the southern end of the redevelopment site there, in which case it could be on the south to east side of the triangle at Cricklewood).

Just as the Overground's existing orbital route is in two parts, I would imagine the "R25" would also be slpit somewhere: Twickenham and Brent Cross would seem the obvious places as, like Clapham Junction, reversal will be necessary there anyway.
Why are people calling it the R25 anyway. It is much closer to the North and South Circular Roads (crossing it at Barking, Gunnersbury, Tulse Hill and Woolwich) so maybe R205 (or R406) would be better.










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