|
The Croxley Rail Link is a railway engineering project in the Watford and Three Rivers districts of Hertfordshire, England. When complete, Watford branch services on the London Underground's Metropolitan line will be diverted at Croxley Green from the current terminus at Watford tube station onto the alignment of the disused Watford and Rickmansworth Railway between Croxley Green and stations before continuing to . The diversion requires the construction of a viaduct over the Grand Union Canal, River Gade and A412 road at Croxley Green, and Watford tube station will close to passengers. The main proponent of the scheme is Hertfordshire County Council,〔 see section 6.3.6〕 supported by Transport for London (TfL) which owns the Watford branch. The proposed route was featured in a Transport for London network map for 2016 and the Transport for London Indicative 2025 Transport Map on which Watford tube station does not appear. When the link is built, direct services between Watford Junction and would also be possible,〔 but these are not included in the business case for the scheme. The project was approved by the Government on 14 December 2011. Work began with clearing vegetation in 2013, although it has not been announced when construction may begin.〔 The project received final Government approval through an Order of the Transport and Works Act on 24 July 2013. The Croxley Link was signed off and formally given the green light by the government on 17 March 2015, when it was confirmed that Transport for London would be responsible for it. George Osborne declared the Croxley Rail Link will open up 'real benefits for people living in and around Watford'.The first trains are expected to run in 2020. == History == The present-day London Underground Watford station is situated close to Cassiobury Park, somewhat peripheral to Watford town centre. The Metropolitan Railway had originally intended to extend the branch into central Watford via a tunnel under Cassiobury Park to a terminus on the High Street. Watford station was constructed at a low level to allow for the construction of a cut-and-cover tunnel across the park, and in 1927 the MR purchased 44 High Street, opposite Clarendon Road, with the intention of converting it into the booking hall of Watford Central tube station. Watford Urban District Council, who had bought parts of the Cassiobury Estate from the Earl of Essex to create Cassiobury Park, objected to the proposal to drive a railway across the park. The project was cancelled and the terminus of the Watford branch remained on the southern side of the park, approximately from the town centre and 44 Watford High Street is now The Moon Under Water public house. Another railway in the Watford area was the single-track Watford and Rickmansworth Railway (WRR), a branch of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) which opened in 1862 between and . In 1912 the LNWR opened a second branch to and although part of the route ran close to the Metropolitan line (about 200 metres), the lines were not linked. The LNWR line came under the ownership of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923 and British Rail in 1948. Throughout this time, passenger numbers were low and the former WRR lines were run down; British Rail withdrew passenger services from the Rickmansworth branch in 1952 and ran a skeleton service on the Croxley Green branch until 1996, when both branches were closed. The London Transport Executive (LTE), part of the British Transport Commission, considered options for the Metropolitan line in 1948, including what to do with the Watford property which had been acquired for the abandoned tunnel scheme and proposed linking the Metropolitan to the BR Croxley Green branch line.〔Horne, p.96〕 A similar proposal was put forward by London Regional Transport (LRT) around 1994; an adapted version of the tube map for internal planning purposes printed that year shows a projected route via Watford West and Watford High Street to Watford Junction. Because the line lay entirely within Hertfordshire, it was championed by the county council who lobbied for funding from LRT (later TfL) and the Department for Transport for 16 years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Croxley Rail Link」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|