West London Orbital Consultation

[PGAT]

TfL have released a new consultation to bring ahead the WLO. Haven’t had time to read it fully but looks like the originally proposed West Hampstead branch has been abandoned.

West London Orbital

Find out about proposals for the West London Orbital, a new London Overground service designed to improve connections across west and northwest London. View plans for new and upgraded stations, understand the potential benefits and impacts, and share your feedback.

haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk

We’re developing proposals for a new rail service, the West London Orbital (WLO). It would be a new London Overground service. It is proposed to run between Hounslow and Hendon, making use of existing rail lines that are currently underused - including the Dudding Hill line, which is currently only used by freight services.

The service would serve a mix of new stations and upgrades to current ones. The proposed new stations are:

• Neasden
  
  
• Harlesden
  
  
• Old Oak Common Lane
  
  
• Lionel Road

Some existing stations would need new platforms, entrances or other upgrades to support the WLO service. You can read more about the new stations by using the 'Stations' button above.

You can read more about the proposed route and why we chose it by using the 'Route' button above.

This new service has the potential to make travelling across west and northwest London much easier. We’re looking for your views to help shape these proposals.

 

[telstarbox]

Good stuff!

 

[paulmch]

They address the West Hampstead question in the Route section of the consultation website. Seems reasonable, especially if that £100m is the difference between it being built and being shelved.

Forecasts show around seven times fewer passengers would use a branch to West Hampstead Thameslink compared to the route to Hendon. It would also make the WLO around £100m more costly to deliver. So, the branch doesn't currently offer enough benefit compared to its cost and complexity.

 

[Farigiraf]

Great to see it progressing, though I retain the view that since nearly every 'interchange' on the line will actually be a pretty mediocre OSI connection, the line won't be as well used as expected nor too convenient as an orbital connection unless your origin & destination is along the line. A journey such as Wembley Park to Richmond or Greenford to Hounslow, both currently pretty inconvenient, will only get slightly less convenient. The convenience for west Londoners of having a high-speed rail hub next door will be offset by having to lug your suitcase half a mile across suburban Acton. In the Kew Bridge / Lionel Road area, residents in the new housing development will be able to choose between a slow & infrequent SWR or a fairly long and indirect 1-change OSI route via OOC to get into the city.

That's the nature of reusing legacy routes rather than building from new, I guess - it's cheap enough that at least we get something built to serve these secondary (but still really important) flows that need mass transit but won't get extensive private funding. To get an idea of what we could've been doing, take a look at our neighbours across the Channel, building the Grand Paris Express, including 2-3 orbital lines, and compare that to this Great British compromise!

I wonder if cross-platform connections to mainline services will be possible at either end, such as at Brent Cross West and Hounslow? Given that SWR and Thameslink only run 2-4 times an hour through these stations it'd be a good idea to try to coordinate connections as it's likely that a significant amount of passengers will be transferring to/from mainline services.

 

[Supercoss]

A significant saving by not having a spur to West Hampstead Thameslink which would require signal interlocking changes at WH North Junction, where at Hendon an existing crossover exists all be it disconnected within interlocking.
for those with future visions imagine if the spur was extended beyond West Hampstead to Finchley Road where the current O2 Centre is being redeveloped for housing on what was originally BR / LT exchange sidings.

 

[mr_jrt]

They address the West Hampstead question in the Route section of the consultation website. Seems reasonable, especially if that £100m is the difference between it being built and being shelved.

Indeed.

If you want West Hampstead from most of the line, there's always the existing LO Richmond-Stratford service, though the interchange at OOC will need to be good. Serving Cricklewood on its own given the existing Thameslink service provision was never going to wash its face in a MVP (minimum viable product).

West Hampstead is better for Thameslink interchanges, though, so there's that. Personally I think that branch only really comes into its own if extended in tunnel to Gospel Oak or some such. And maybe then the Hendon branch can get extended to Mill Hill.

But as a initial project core, I think they've got this one largely right.

I do agree with Farigiraf on the quality (or rather, lack thereof) of the interchanges, though. Would have massively inflated costs to improve those, so on balance, again, I think as an initial project I think what they have is right. I'd love to see integrated Neasden and Harlesden rebuilds one day, though.