Old Oak Common railway station
Old Oak Common is a planned railway station to be constructed on the site of the Old Oak Common traction maintenance depot to the west of London in Old Oak Common, approximately south of Willesden Junction station. When built, it is expected to be one of the largest rail hubs in London, at about in length and 65 feet below surface level.
The new station has been included as a part of the High Speed 2 line from London to Birmingham, covered by the High Speed Rail Act 2017. This hybrid bill conferred powers to construct and maintain phase 1, including intermediate stations. The surrounding area, including possible above-station development, is controlled by the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation set up in April 2015.
The station will provide a major transport interchange with a number of other main line and commuter rail services, including Crossrail and the Great Western Main Line. The High Speed 2 line will be below ground level at the Old Oak Common site, with the parallel Great Western Main Line and Crossrail tracks on the surface to the south. In May 2020, the station gained planning permission.
Construction
Initial groundwork started on the site in 2019, following the completion of the consultation opened in February 2019. At its peak, there will be 1,500 workers building the station. In June 2020, sheet pilling commenced on site after the station gained planning approval and the main works contractor for the station started work.Planned services
According to proposals issued in 2010 by the Department for Transport, Old Oak Common will provide direct interchange between HS2 and Crossrail and Great Western Main Line services, including those operated by Heathrow Express and Great Western Railway.The following table illustrates the planned range of services, based on current DfT documentation on the station, additional proposed serves are described in the following sub-sections.
The Business Case, released in 2020, suggests that every HS2 service that calls at London Euston will also call at Old Oak Common.
Interchange proposals
Due to the proximity of the Old Oak Common site to other lines, it has been suggested that further connections could be made with commuter rail services. The 2010 DfT command paper highlights opportunities for interchanges at Old Oak Common with London Underground, London Overground, and West London line services between and Milton Keynes Central.| Service | Interchange | Status | |
| London Overground North London Line | Proposed new station | ||
| London Overground West London Line | Proposed new station | ||
| London Overground West London Orbital | Proposed new station and route | ||
| Chiltern Railways Chiltern Main Line/Acton–Northolt line | Proposed new terminal station and route | ||
| Southern West London Route | Not specified | Proposal not supported | |
| London Underground Central line | North Acton station | Existing station |
Transit systems
An early report prepared in 2011 for the Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham by Terry Farrell & Partners explored several interchange possibilities and proposed the construction of an overhead light rail, automated people mover or personal rapid transit system linking "Old Oak Central" with, and Willesden Junction stations. However,, no actual proposals exist to create an interchange with these lines.London Overground stations
Transport for London considered several options for creating an interchange with London Overground, including a combined North London/West London Line station on the southern side of the site, adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs, and two separate stations located to the south and to the west of the site.In October 2017, TfL began a public consultation on the construction of two new Overground stations.
The consultation concluded that two separate London Overground stations on the Old Oak Common site would be the preferred option: on the North London line would be built to the west of the main station, and on the West London line would be located east of the station, near Scrubs Lane.
In September 2017, a proposal was made for a new West London Orbital from Hounslow to Hendon using the disused Dudding Hill Line. If the scheme were to go ahead, London Overground services would run via Old Oak Common station located at Victoria Road and other new stations at Brent Cross West and Harlesden. Four trains per hour would run from Hendon to Hounslow and another service from Hendon to Kew Bridge via Old Oak Common., the scheme was being considered by TfL.
Chiltern Main Line Connection
Network Rail has proposed that the Chiltern Main Line should have a second terminal at Old Oak Common to increase capacity on the route as there is no room to expand the station at Marylebone. To do so, services would use the Acton–Northolt line with some Chiltern trains possibly terminating at Old Oak Common rather than Marylebone.A 2017 Network Rail report on the long term plans for the Chiltern Line, included an option of providing additional platforms at Old Oak Common station area as a relief for Marylebone, with upgrading of the Acton-Northolt Line.
High Speed 1
Although the 2010 DfT proposal for HS2 outlined a number of other possible transport links at Old Oak Common, including the addition of a direct link with the High Speed 1 route to Mainland European services via the Channel Tunnel, it was removed following the Higgins ReviewSouthern
Services operated by Southern running between and pass through the Old Oak Common site. The line will pass the planned location of Hythe Road Overground station to join the West London Line at Mitre Bridge, approximately to the east of the Old Oak Common station site. TfL have stated that it will not be possible to construct platforms to accommodate Southern trains and that an interchange will not be provided.Other proposals
The construction company Parsons Brinckerhoff submitted a detailed plan to High Speed 2 which included West London Line, North London Line, West Coast Main Line and Dudding Hill Line platforms, although this pre-dated the announcement of the HS2 London terminus such that their proposed alignment would not be possible.Network Rail's London and South East Route Utilisation Strategy published in 2011 examines the possibility of constructing a chord through the Old Oak Common area to connect Crossrail to the West Coast Main Line. The report notes that a proportion of trains on the Crossrail service are planned to terminate at Paddington, and that a new western branch of Crossrail would enable those services to continue on towards and beyond. The proposed link would also relieve pressure on Euston station by diverting WCML suburban trains onto the Crossrail route instead of terminating at Euston.
A separate proposal promoted by the Campaign for Better Transport advocacy group, the North and West London Light Railway, suggests running a light rail line past the Old Oak Common site between and Brent Cross. This scheme is not, however, supported by any government plans.
Political support
The Old Oak Common plans were unveiled two months before the 2010 United Kingdom general election by the Labour government. While the Conservative/Liberal Democrat administration supported the HS2 project, the Conservative Party has indicated a preference to an alternative proposal, put forward by Arup, for the HS2 line to go directly to a hub station at Heathrow Airport. Under this scheme, the west London interchange would be situated at Heathrow rather than at Old Oak Common. Conservative MP Theresa Villiers referred to the Old Oak Common scheme as "Wormwood Scrubs International", and criticised it on account of its distance from the airport and the inconvenience to airport passengers having to change trains. The former Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has been non-committal in supporting the Old Oak Common site, and takes the view that further evaluation is required.When asked about a High Speed Rail / Crossrail interchange at Old Oak Common, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond stated "Lug your heavy bags down a couple of escalators along 600m of corridor and then change trains at a wet suburban station somewhere in north west London. That is not an option.".
The Old Oak Common plans are supported by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
Lord Mawhinney, a former Conservative MP for Peterborough concluded that the London High Speed 2 terminus should be at Old Oak Common, not at. That was because of tunnelling costs and possible fast turnaround times at Old Oak Common.
In summer 2011, Hammersmith and Fulham launched a wider 'Park Royal City' plan for Old Oak Common, including light rail or personal rapid transit lines to the surrounding areas.