please empty your brain below
I'm very glad they didn't stick with brown for the Overground. (I think 'TfL Rail' had a brown roundel too)

By the way, Heathrow's operator in 2004 was BAA - they stopped being the British Airports Authority in about 1986.

Martin | 09.07.24 - 7:15 a.m. | #

A Streatham to Purley tramline would be great, if not for the fact it duplicates the 109 to the north - then again, given how busy it can get and how congested the A23 can be, it's not the worst idea ever.

At least the Farringdon - Barbican blob doesn't look as bad now as it did on this map.

All Over 2a | Homepage | 09.07.24 - 7:23 a.m. | #

I still fondly remember Transport Plans for the London Area, a sort of proto-Always Touch Out.

Chris | 09.07.24 - 8:09 a.m. | #

It's worth noting that two schemes that were not on that map have been delivered - Northern Line extension to Battersea Power Station and London Overground to Barking Riverside.

Deltic | 09.07.24 - 8:09 a.m. | #

Sometimes you really have to focus on the long game

The furthest any politician can see is the next election, which, at best, is five years ahead. Five years is nothing to a big infrastructure project.

Jon Jones | 09.07.24 - 8:26 a.m. | #

As Martin says, th company funding the Heathrow work was BAA plc - not an abbreviation, its actual name. It still exists (company number 01970855), now called LHR Airports Ltd.

Islander | 09.07.24 - 8:52 a.m. | #

Interesting to see from the map that Brent Cross West/West London Orbital is something of a "Johnny come lately" in London transport planning, with the station already delivered (at huge cost, with passive provision for WLO), although rest of WLO feels a bit stalled.

MilesT | 09.07.24 - 9:07 a.m. | #

In "Also on the 2004 Map" - I think the Shepherds Bush on the H&C Line was the old Shepherds Bush station which was later renamed Shepherds Bush Market. Wood Lane was later built between Latimer Road and Shepherds Bush Market and is not shown on the 2004 map.

dg writes: removed, thanks.

The Banbury Man | Homepage | 09.07.24 - 9:08 a.m. | #

The financial crisis of 2007/8 and the massive cost overruns on the Crossrail project severely curtailed some of the ambitions, but overall London still has done pretty well.

And many of the big projects, like the Bank station rebuild, don't add anything new to the map, but are still major (and expensive) improvements.

Mikey C | 09.07.24 - 9:50 a.m. | #

Hopefully with the change of government we see increased ambition and a similar map produced, which we can revisit in another 20 odd years.

Dazzling Darren | 09.07.24 - 10:37 a.m. | #

“Cody Road” instead of Star Lane !!! 🤨

Geofftech | 09.07.24 - 10:38 a.m. | #

Maryland is not on Crossrail due to short platforms that could not be lengthened without massive engineering work.

Once the route on the western branch changed and it was realised short platforms were inevitable, selective door operation (then in its infancy) was included in the programme and so Maryland was added to Crossrail.

dg writes: added, thanks

Pedantic of Purley | 09.07.24 - 11:20 a.m. | #

The days before wheelchair blobs.

Looking at the map.

Shadwell isn't an interchange
Circle Line is still a circle
Centrale is missing from Tramlink
Thameslink still serves Barbican and Moorgate
No Overground from Liverpool Street
No Dangleway

Still Anon | 09.07.24 - 1:12 p.m. | #

Makes one even more sympathetic to the North when most of London's transport plans go ahead while theirs are scrapped.
No wonder they are bitter.

Cornish Cockney | 09.07.24 - 1:34 p.m. | #

I rather like the idea of a Crossrail branch heading towards Richmond, getting them off the GWML. Though my preference would be Feltham, providing more service to the currently underserved Hounslow Loop. Why the Elizabeth line chugs out to Reading…?

Michael Jones | 09.07.24 - 1:58 p.m. | #

In answer to Geoff, Cody Road is the road on the opposite side of the railway from Star Lane itself. Presumably this reflected an intention to focus on the industrial side of the line rather than the more residential Star Lane. The station has entrances on both sides.

Stratford High Street is here called Stratford Market, the name of the old station once there. In hindsight both names are/would be problematic as Stratford's retail focus is now on Broadway not High Street but "Market" would also imply there. I have often found people from outside Stratford highly confused about the station names as they assume Stratford High Street is another name for the main station by the shopping centre not an obscure DLR station that is not right next to the shops.

Tim Roll-Pickering | 09.07.24 - 2:37 p.m. | #

Crossrail was 'on the drawing board' as long ago as 1994: see your copy of the Central London Rail Study.

David B | 09.07.24 - 5:23 p.m. | #

I'm most bitter about the trams. France uses them hand it hand with urban renewal and public realm improvements. The CRT could've been transformational.

matthieu1221 | 09.07.24 - 5:30 p.m. | #

Intriguing that the map mostly goes to great lengths to pretend that no closures were going to happen - Shoreditch is still there for some reason, and I assume they already knew the City Widened Lines' days were numbered - and yet "Silverlink" extends no further than Stratford, despite North Woolwich not closing until two years later.

swirlythingy | 09.07.24 - 6:15 p.m. | #

The West London Tram came achingly close but realistically the mayor would have needed more powers to make it happen. Ealing Council was dead against, fearing it would kill high streets but it would have been an orbital gamechanger and replaced several bus routes.

Cross River Transit was a tough sell but again a missed opportunity that might one day be revisited.

Sadly, the optimism with trams in the early 2000s across the UK as a cheap way of providing mass transit was short lived, killed off by our old friends sclerotic planning, NIMBYism and Being So Much More Expensive To Do Literally Anything Compared to Europe.

E | 10.07.24 - 10:24 a.m. | #

I lived in Ealing at the time of the West London Tram discussion, and was very pro it - not having a car. And I do think it would have been a game changer.

But it would likely have had a lot of road running, and reflecting now, having seen the challenges that some of newer Manchester's tramlines have that also have a lot of road running, I can't help but think it wouldn't have been as good as the supporters would have hoped. Trams work best when segregated from the traffic, and would there have been room?

Oh well. It's dead and buried now, mostly because of a minority of the population who drive cars causing a right old stink.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 12.07.24 - 10:54 a.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy