A £650 million orbital rail route could connect Watford and Rickmansworth with towns all around the outskirts of London within ten years.

London RingRail is planned to stop at Rickmansworth, Tolpits Lane, Watford High Street, Watford Junction and Radlett on its circular tour around the capital.

It would join the south west Hertfordshire area to 38 towns such as South Mimms, Wimbledon, East Croydon and Kingston, as well as all four Heathrow airport terminals.

RingRail is being planned by consulting civil, structural and traffic engineers SB Tietz and Partners.

The 99.9 mile route would use 57.8 miles of existing track and is said to require “minimal” disruption to property.

All the other local stops already have railway stations, so only one new station would need to be built, at Tolpits Lane, and that is uncertain as it is thought to be the least important of all 38 stops.

The railway could link with Crossrail in the Rickmansworth area with work being carried out to create a rail link between Rickmansworth and Tolpits Lane.

There would also have to be railway work to build track between Watford and Radlett.

SB Tietz and Partners say the RingRail would have many advantages including linking many of London’s most important suburbs; providing seven park-and-ride stations at motorway interchanges, including one at the M25 at Maple Cross; connecting the London airports, with interchanges to Stansted, Gatwick and Luton; inter-suburban travel facilities for about 2.7 million residents living within three miles of one of its stations and 600,000 living within one mile.

SB Tietz and Partners says RingRail could be completed by the year 2001 if the plan is pursued with urgency.

They say a study showed more than 50 per cent of commuter journeys orbited London rather than going in and out.

As there was no orbital rail track they could see further pressure being put on the M25 – the only real means of getting halfway round London without driving through the city during the rush hour.

All Members of Parliament and members of the European Parliament in the constituencies affected have been informed of the plan, as have local authorities and transport agencies such as Network South East and Transport 2000.

Founder partner Mr Stefan Tietz said: “Too many attempts to take bolder steps towards solving London’s traffic problems peter out for lack of concerted action and will.

“London cannot afford to continue that way. Cities that learned from our transport system in the past are now ahead of us in the services they provide and we need to learn from their progress.”

[From the Watford Observer of July 31, 1992]