please empty your brain below

I don't care who sponsors it - give us the frost fair!
If the ferry moves from Woolwich to Gallions Reach, a few more people might use the Woolwich foot tunnel, which you wrote about a few days ago and said it was underused.
New Thames River crossings are needed in East London, and also in West London where the bridges get busy. An opportunity was missed a few years ago when the Hammersmith Bridge got damaged, they could have pulled it down and built a new two lanes each way modern bridge. Instead they spent vast amounts of money to patch up the old bridge, which is narrow and has a weight restriction.
Frankly I'm surprised there are still any free crossings of any river any more. The Mersey's about to get a new, six lane bridge, and the price we'll all have to pay is tolls on both the new *and* the existing bridge. It'll mean that, despite there being six crossings en route, the only way to get from one side of the river to the other without paying will be to go practically as far as Warrington. Bad news for the tightwads amongst us.

Taking advantage of pinch points like this is the new way of funding. We're going to have to get used to it.
Your ideas are obviously meant to be ridiculous. Most notable was "Crossrail will have a station in Woolwich solely because a housing company wants it." That is not true at all and I suspect you know it. Loads of inner south east London wanted it and Greenwich Council actively campaigned for it. Even Crossrail itself appeared to want it but would not include it because it made the financial case weaker. It is actually happening solely because a housing company is prepared to put money into this but it has the strong backing of Greenwich council and just about everyone else.
To out-pedant Pedantic of Purley, is it true that the SOLE reason the station in Woolwich is happening is because the housing company put up the money? That imples that it would have happened even if Crossrail, Greenwich Council, Uncle Tom Cobley etc had all been implacably opposed to it.

No 6
Stuck once again on Wandsworth's West Hill, I often daydream about having a tunnel between Tibbets Corner and Cheyne Walk, mainly in immersed tube under the Thames. Two more to bypass the centres of Kingston and Richmond would also make a big difference. Will never happen though.

Don't have a car so I don't have a personal interest in whether there's a toll on the new crossings or not, but it's worth remembering that TfL has a very successful toll-charging mechanism in the Congestion Charge system. It wouldn't be hard to put cameras on the tunnels (or bridges, come to that) in order to get drivers to pay via the CC or via a purpose-designed duplicate of it.
Timbo,

No, there was a lot of petitioning in the House of Lords during the Crossrail bill. As far as I am aware the housing company took no part in it and I am sure if they had done so on their own the committee would have taken no notice. It was Greenwich Council wot did it.
Neither of the crossing proposals will help deal with the impending gridlock on the QE2 crossing.
The implication is that a road tunnel is public transport. This is not the usual definition?
Your ten suggestions are just brilliant .. Especially the rather wicked Erith catapult n the wonderfully named Utterly Butterly Westminster punt! They have brighten up this dull overcast day .. Thx.










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