What if....

[Hyronymus]

In the 1960's, when personal car ownership became something attainable for a large part of the population, almost all interlocal tram connections were taken out of service. One of them was the (locally) famous "Blauwe Tram" (Blue Tram) between The Hague and, Leiden, Oegstgeest, Haarlem and Amsterdam. The services weren't cost-effective anymore and lightrail wasn't invented yet.

Now it's been decided to bring back the tram from Leiden to Oegstgeest and in the far future link it up to "Randstadrail", a interlocal tram connection between The Hague and Rotterdam. Funny thing is that the majority of the route between Leiden and Oegstgeest follows the old route of the "Blauwe Tram". Appearently it wasn't all that bad in the 1960's, just too expensive to maintain.

For the freaks some images of the old trams and the trams-to-be:

[Kevo00]

The original Marylebone was intended to be much larger than what we see currently but since the traffic on the GC never reached anticipated levels the land was sold off.
As for freight on the GC, all well and good being of a larger loading guage but getting it to the GC is another matter!

Well, obviously I'm assuming that a link across from HS1 or whatever was put in!

I thought they ran out of money when they were building Marylebone anyway. All this after upsetting the MCC by threatening the site of Lords then tunnelling under...

[Dave]

The GCML wasn't built to the Berne loading gauge - it couldn't have been, since the Berne gauge convention wasn't held until 1912 and the GCML was built at the turn of the 20th century.

It is true it was built with larger gauges, but it wouldn't necessarily take today's continental stock.

[Kevo00]

Fair enough, but it would still need relatively less work than the other lines...

[Ameecher]

The GCML wasn't built to the Berne loading gauge - it couldn't have been, since the Berne gauge convention wasn't held until 1912 and the GCML was built at the turn of the 20th century.

I think you'll find it was built to the guage that became the standard Berne loading guage.

[Dave]

The GCML wasn't built to the Berne loading gauge - it couldn't have been, since the Berne gauge convention wasn't held until 1912 and the GCML was built at the turn of the 20th century.

I think you'll find it was built to the guage that became the standard Berne loading guage.

But it wasn't - certain parts of it wouldn't take trains built to the Berne gauge.

[Railwaymodeler]

Minor dig, I suppose, but this is the first time I've read this thread...

Is the concept behind this line like the American interurban trains of the 1920s? Somehow I just cannot picture a European interurban train. Probably because I imagine Europe as being very settled all over, and the interurban was used extensively in rural areas (With some exceptions).

The project sounds interesting, and a lot like our situation here: We had all these electric interuban lines, tore them down in the '40s, and now we wish we had them back because they would be handy again.

If it carries freight, it would sound just like our systems.