Kensington (Olympia) Motorail

[merseydrew]

Hi all

Curious about the former Motorail services operated out of London Kensington Olympia;

• Were there ever any platforms in the area that is now a car park?
• Did Kensington (Olympia) ever have London Terminal status, and if so when was this removed?

Many Thanks

 

[jfollows]

For the second question: see https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/old-street-as-london-terminals-origin.280710/#post-7139204

From a ticketing/fares perspective, Old Street was included within the "London BR" station group (pre-privatisation equivalent of London Terminals) with effect from National Fares Manual 32 in January 1986. (Kensington Olympia was introduced at the same time, but was dropped from May 1994.) As to why: essentially, because it is a Zone 1 station, as noted above. (I know Kensington Olympia isn't, but there were other reasons for its inclusion.)

 

[30907]

Hi all

Curious about the former Motorail services operated out of London Kensington Olympia;

• Were there ever any platforms in the area that is now a car park?
• Did Kensington (Olympia) ever have London Terminal status, and if so when was this removed?

Many Thanks

The car park area was the monorail terminal, and previously ordinary bay platforms. Others will know more detail of the history.

 

[Roger1973]

The National Library of Scotland has historic OS maps online, the 1964 edition shows track layout at Olympia - it's not entirely clear about showing platforms, though. From vague memory of a visit in the mid 80s (at that time, Motorail had ended but the bays etc were still there) and photos I've got / seen since, think the track layout was broadly the same during the Motorail era.

While the station is still open, the Disused Stations website has a page on the station, with some photos.

 

[30907]

The National Library of Scotland has historic OS maps online, the 1964 edition shows track layout at Olympia - it's not entirely clear about showing platforms, though.

Curiously, the whole Motorail area is shaded as if it were a building, whereas the other platforms are shown conventionally.

 

[Rescars]

Curiously, the whole Motorail area is shaded as if it were a building, whereas the other platforms are shown conventionally.

The Motorail car loading / reception area (concourse?) had an overall roof.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The Disused Stations piece recalls that the original WLL route in 1844 crossed the GWR on the level, with a station serving both routes, though it was never a success and a bridge was eventually built in 1860 to take the WLL over the GWR (without the passenger station).
Shades of today's project to build an enormous station at Old Oak Common, just to the west, for interchange between HS2 and the GW/Crossrail routes.