Dear All,
It is sometimes mentioned that the original purpose of getting control over the South Eastern and Metropolitan Railways by the Grand Central Rly's chairman, E. Watkin, was to get access to the Channel ports for the GCR trains. This would be done by means of using the Inner Circle and East London Line. Does anyone happen to know if such through services ever commenced? (I have no Bradshaw here to consult).
By the way: using the urban railways for various sort of trains, as well as the national network for local city services, is a policy that was considered as unsuitable by many 'Continental' railways, which preferred to be confined to their own areas of activities. They would eagerly show that was technologically incompatible with their basic services. The British and American experience, where private railway companies were more likely to go into certain 'exotic' arrangements, seem to point out some ways of exploring the existing railway corridor capacity more economically. To what extent local and long-distance traffic can be combined, may be worth a discussion.
Jacek Wesolowski,
Lodz, Poland
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