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Acton-Northolt Line Closure

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Jorge Da Silva

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The line between West Ruislip and the planned Old Oak Common station is currently used by one service per day between Hign Wycombe and London Paddington but HS2 will tunnel underneath the line so will the line close and if so when? And for how long?
 
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The Planner

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Technically its only one train to High Wycombe, the other is South Ruislip to Paddington. The line gets severed near Old Oak Common and HS2 construction trains are still mooted to go down to Park Royal though that still isnt confirmed. The line severance is indefinite but the plan is still for the line to be upgraded so Chiltern or whoever replaces them can run to OOC.
 

CarltonA

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Sorry if this has been mentioned somewhere else, but this coming weekend a closure at West Ruislip has been cancelled and a normal Chiltern service should be operating. The works were meant to be something to do with HS2.

What was going to be done and why the cancellation? Thanks and sorry again if I failed to find an existing thread.

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/18th-november-2018
 
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The Planner

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Sorry if this has been mentioned somewhere else, but this coming weekend a closure at West Ruislip has been cancelled and a normal Chiltern service should be operating. The works were meant to be something to do with HS2.

What was going to be done and why the cancellation? Thanks and sorry again if I failed to find an existing thread.

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/18th-november-2018
Preparation works for the HS2 railhead, veg clearance probably, no idea why it was canned.
 

700007

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Sorry if this has been mentioned somewhere else, but this coming weekend a closure at West Ruislip has been cancelled and a normal Chiltern service should be operating. The works were meant to be something to do with HS2.

What was going to be done and why the cancellation? Thanks and sorry again if I failed to find an existing thread.

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/18th-november-2018
The cancellation was done because Wembley Stadium is hosting a match and it would be too much hassle and deemed to an extent unacceptable to dump thousands of people at West Ruislip and then ferry them on buses.

This comes especially as Wembley has minimal parking as a venue to encourage spectators to come via public transport where possible.
 

The Planner

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I am not so sure it was, that match was scheduled a lot later than the works were.
 

Mollman

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I am not so sure it was, that match was scheduled a lot later than the works were.
But there has been a lot of fuss about it.

If the line is being closed indefinable with no solid commitment to reinstating it, does there need to be a closure order?
 

Mark J

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I cannot understand why the Greenford branch isn't extended to South Ruislip, utilising the remaining NNML. Thus creating a connection between the GWML and Chiltern line, avoiding the need to go into Central London and back out again.
 

CarltonA

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I cannot understand why the Greenford branch isn't extended to South Ruislip, utilising the remaining NNML. Thus creating a connection between the GWML and Chiltern line, avoiding the need to go into Central London and back out again.

That would eliminate Greenford itself, unless reopening the low level station there. There is no need to go into central London however, just change at Greenford and one of the Ruislips to access the Chiltern services.
 

Old Yard Dog

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There is another thread on this, but I can't find it. So let me repeat ...

The Greenford West Jn - Greenford East Jn - Park Royal - Old Oak Common CP line closes for good in early December.

The last trains over this section are on Fri 7th December as follows:

1057 South Ruislip to Paddington
1135 Paddington to High Wycombe

The latter usually runs non stop but, on this occasion, may make additional stops at South Ruislip, Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield.
From Dec 10, the plan is to run to/from West Ealing bay platform P5 instead.
 

swt_passenger

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There is another thread on this, but I can't find it. So let me repeat ...

The Greenford West Jn - Greenford East Jn - Park Royal - Old Oak Common CP line closes for good in early December.

The last trains over this section are on Fri 7th December as follows:

1057 South Ruislip to Paddington
1135 Paddington to High Wycombe

The latter usually runs non stop but, on this occasion, may make additional stops at South Ruislip, Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield.
From Dec 10, the plan is to run to/from West Ealing bay platform P5 instead.
Probably this one in the allocations and timetables section:
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/chiltern-at-west-ealing.172488/
 

The Planner

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There is another thread on this, but I can't find it. So let me repeat ...

The Greenford West Jn - Greenford East Jn - Park Royal - Old Oak Common CP line closes for good in early December.
So HS2 have confirmed they arent using it down to Park Royal? First Ive heard.
 

Railwaysceptic

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So HS2 have confirmed they arent using it down to Park Royal? First Ive heard.
I don't think it does close for good. It's safer to say that it closes for the time being. Until the idea of Chiltern running trains to/from Old Oak is abandoned, all options are open.
 

Andyjs247

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I don't think it does close for good. It's safer to say that it closes for the time being. Until the idea of Chiltern running trains to/from Old Oak is abandoned, all options are open.
I don’t think Chiltern will be running to Old Oak Common any time soon. But there is an aspiration for an EWR service from Northampton via MK and Aylesbury.
 

The Planner

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I don’t think Chiltern will be running to Old Oak Common any time soon. But there is an aspiration for an EWR service from Northampton via MK and Aylesbury.
I am willing to bet Chiltern get to OOC before any E-W service goes to Northampton. It is tight enough getting them to MK, let alone any further.
 

tsr

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That would eliminate Greenford itself, unless reopening the low level station there. There is no need to go into central London however, just change at Greenford and one of the Ruislips to access the Chiltern services.

Unless you’re one of a handful of people willing to put up with several changes and using only the stopping services calling at West Ealing, then also one of the stopping Chiltern services calling at the Ruislips, it would likely be far quicker and possibly physically easier (depending on requirements) to go via London and the Bakerloo Line.

There are a few people, predominantly local or those at the mercy of random journey planning software outputs, who’d go via Greenford, but they really would be few and far between.

In other words, West Ealing and Greenford / Ruislip aren’t especially useful interchanges and you have to factor in the lack of desirable “fast” services calling at either. It’s a shame really, but I’m not sure what could be done without proving there is huge demand between the GWML and the Chiltern Mainline and improving infrastructure / timetables on the back of that.

I just can’t see it happening.

(And I reckon most Londoners wouldn’t know all that much about the West Ealing - Greenford service, nor would especially care much if it was extended - and as for someone from outside the area doing a journey such as Reading to Leamington or Slough to High Wycombe, they would likely already have alternative options which would be hard to replace in this way.

A better option would be to consider routing traffic to/from the Chilterns via the new interchange ideas at Old Oak, with journey opportunities from a number of directions including places further south, such as Heathrow and beyond. And this is obviously what is already being looked at, to some degree.)
 

paok

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There is another thread on this, but I can't find it. So let me repeat ...

The Greenford West Jn - Greenford East Jn - Park Royal - Old Oak Common CP line closes for good in early December.

The last trains over this section are on Fri 7th December as follows:

1057 South Ruislip to Paddington
1135 Paddington to High Wycombe

The latter usually runs non stop but, on this occasion, may make additional stops at South Ruislip, Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield.
From Dec 10, the plan is to run to/from West Ealing bay platform P5 instead.

For the avoidance of doubt and those who may not know the reference of CP above - this closure is for passenger services. Freight into Park Royal is unaffected and the future use of Wycombe Siding for HS2 construction traffic remains available.
 

swt_passenger

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If they can get to West Ealing why not onto the GWML relief lines there? Lack of paths?
GWR Greenfords have been terminating at West Ealing for a while, it was a Crossrail pre-requisite and is the reason the bay platform was brought back into use, to remove the conflict caused by down trains crossing onto the branch. If GWR cannot run through trains any longer it would be a bit weird to allow Chiltern to do so, (as was discussed in the other recent thread about this.)
 

CarltonA

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The Greenford West Jn - Greenford East Jn - Park Royal - Old Oak Common CP line closes for good in early December.

The last trains over this section are on Fri 7th December as follows:

1057 South Ruislip to Paddington
1135 Paddington to High Wycombe

The latter usually runs non stop but, on this occasion, may make additional stops at South Ruislip, Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield.
From Dec 10, the plan is to run to/from West Ealing bay platform P5 instead.

I was on the 10:57 this morning and there were about 35 on board, mostly enthusiasts having a last or in some cases first run on the line. One man was interviewing people for an article he was planning to write. I expect the next two days will be busy judging by the numbers today.
 

Nippy

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For the avoidance of doubt and those who may not know the reference of CP above - this closure is for passenger services. Freight into Park Royal is unaffected and the future use of Wycombe Siding for HS2 construction traffic remains available.
Indeed, and the signalling between Greenford East and Park Royal is being transferred from TVSC to a new IECC Scaleable workstation in Greenford Box! Must be the first time a 100+ year old box has taken over work from a 'ROC' type place (I know TVSC isn't a ROC)
 

ijmad

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A better option would be to consider routing traffic to/from the Chilterns via the new interchange ideas at Old Oak, with journey opportunities from a number of directions including places further south, such as Heathrow and beyond. And this is obviously what is already being looked at, to some degree.)

Yes, I think some services from Old Oak Common up this line could provide very useful connections. The West Ruislip branch of the Central Line isn't exactly packed, but it does miss out on an easy Crossrail connection. Using new Chiltern services to link up West/South Ruislip with Old Oak Common would certainly fix this, and provide some other useful connections to the West/North London Lines without going all the way in to Shepherds Bush.

Perhaps at that point the Greenford Branch should be transferred to that franchise's control, although whether those trains could turn left or right rather than terminating at Greenford would be difficult to answer, it really depends on who gets on and where they currently go.
 
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