West London Orbital - Future Interchange Aspirations

[mr_jrt]

From: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/west-london-orbital-consultation.307477/post-7960948

I conversely think that it is good to spread the interchanges on the route to not overload any single place and to placemake some outer focal minor ‘hubs’ (ie somewhere with two lines!)

Neasden has a ton of housing potential, much as has been done at Wembley. But you wouldn’t call Met services there. Harlesden might see the same.

And as for West Hampstead - in another lifetime yes ideal but not remotely possible in the footprint today. But Finchley Road is already a major focal point and interchange (esp w buses, coaches) and bridges into Hampstead, Frognal etc - quite a wide catchment)

You know, I read this the other day, and largely agreed, I think it would be nice, but won't happen. But you know what, this is a forum of intelligent reasonably-informed people, so why not ask the questions and have a discussion?

So, this thread is intended as a discussion for what would be ideal down the line, once the traffic has built up. Or if we lived in a world where there was the money to build things to a higher-standard off the bat, like we used to.

So...

Why not move the primary Met interchange to a rebuilt Neasden, effectively extending the Stanmore and Uxbridge branches by a single station?

Everything stays accessible, it makes little difference to Stanmore branch passengers as they can continue to change to the Uxbridge services that will still call, and Neasden is just an extra stop for the Uxbridge branch passengers, and a different one for the outer Met passengers for the services that already stop at Wembley Park.

Wembley Park can still be served by the Met on special occasions (or even all off-peak, kinda like how the "fast" Met platforms there are, or at least used to be, used?), but Neasden becomes the all-day primary interchange between the Met branches and the Jubilee.

In times past I even mused if, with the platforms moved eastwards for a new hub station, there would be room for the Jubilee to have a diveunder and take the Sudburys off Chiltern (with a bit of four tracking, of course!). I suspect the Sudburys would have dramatically more use if they had somewhere more local to connect to, like an interchange at Neasden, rather than just Marylebone.

The same argument largely plays out the same for West Hampstead, but whilst it would be even better interchange, space is unfortunately even more restricted thanks to over-development without the prerequisite transport hub enhancements. I'm largely skipping it here as the branch has been de-scoped, but feel free to discuss it if you want.

Harlesden, whilst dramatically less useful, is also dramatically easier to integrate better due to more land and less other lines around it to link to. You could arguably link the two with some walkways with little effort, but platform extensions under the B4492 bridge would make that link even shorter. The bridge would probably need major work, though!

 

[Metrider]

From: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/west-london-orbital-consultation.307477/post-7960948

You know, I read this the other day, and largely agreed, I think it would be nice, but won't happen. But you know what, this is a forum of intelligent reasonably-informed people, so why not ask the questions and have a discussion?

So, this thread is intended as a discussion for what would be ideal down the line, once the traffic has built up. Or if we lived in a world where there was the money to build things to a higher-standard off the bat, like we used to.

So...

Why not move the primary Met interchange to a rebuilt Neasden, effectively extending the Stanmore and Uxbridge branches by a single station?

Everything stays accessible, it makes little difference to Stanmore branch passengers as they can continue to change to the Uxbridge services that will still call, and Neasden is just an extra stop for the Uxbridge branch passengers, and a different one for the outer Met passengers for the services that already stop at Wembley Park.

Wembley Park can still be served by the Met on special occasions (or even all off-peak, kinda like how the "fast" Met platforms there are, or at least used to be, used?), but Neasden becomes the all-day primary interchange between the Met branches and the Jubilee.

In times past I even mused if, with the platforms moved eastwards for a new hub station, there would be room for the Jubilee to have a diveunder and take the Sudburys off Chiltern (with a bit of four tracking, of course!). I suspect the Sudburys would have dramatically more use if they had somewhere more local to connect to, like an interchange at Neasden, rather than just Marylebone.

The same argument largely plays out the same for West Hampstead, but whilst it would be even better interchange, space is unfortunately even more restricted thanks to over-development without the prerequisite transport hub enhancements. I'm largely skipping it here as the branch has been de-scoped, but feel free to discuss it if you want.

Harlesden, whilst dramatically less useful, is also dramatically easier to integrate better due to more land and less other lines around it to link to. You could arguably link the two with some walkways with little effort, but platform extensions under the B4492 bridge would make that link even shorter. The bridge would probably need major work, though!

While I would hope that the Metropolitan line stops at Neasden in due course (and it shouldn't be so difficult, given that Neasden already has the platforms to accommodate this), I wouldn't want the trains to then not stop at Wembley Park. Wembley is an important stop for people coming in from out of town to see sports, bands, etc. at the stadium. And for interchange it's cross-platform between the Met and Jubilee there, which it wouldn't be at Neasden.

As someone who has walked many times between Finchley Road and Finchley Road & Frognal to interchange with Mildmay, I would of course love a stop at West Hampstead, but that's never going to happen.

 

[mr_jrt]

If you left the Neasden platforms as they are, I wonder if you could knock the siding/headshunt north of the platform though under the road as a new running line, which would then give you your cross platform dual island layout.

Alternatively, shift the Chiltern lines south, and have the same setup as at Wembley Park, with two Met tracks, a eastbound island, the two Jubilee tracks, the westbound island, then the two down Met tracks.

My preference would be to rebuild the station to the east between Neaden Lane and the Dudding Hill line, but the space is more constrained there, so I'm not sure what could be achieved. Awkwardly, there are residential buildings on the northern side of the tracks west of the Dudding Hill line, and south of it on the east, which makes widening the railway footprint for platforms there much more difficult. Given where the WLO platforms are to be built though, I'd wager trimming the gardens to the south (along with industrial acquisitions) would probably be required.