The Anonymous Widower

Could The West London Line Be Another Important North-South Link In London?

I took the Southern service from Wembley Central to East Croydon. It is an hourly service that goes between Milton Keynes and South Croydon stations using a Class 377 train. These pictures show some view of the route.

It is not a high-speed service, and it took about an hour. It does go by a bit of a roundabout route calling at the following stations.

Shepherd’s Bush – For the Westfield shopping centre.

Kensington Olympia – For the exhibition centre.

West Brompton – For Earl’s Court, which is being redeveloiped as housing

Imperial Wharf -For Chelsea and all the smart housing

Clapham Junction – For trains to just about anywhere in the South West and South

Wandsworth Common

Balham – The Gateway to the South

Streatham Common

Norbury

Thornton Heath

Selhurst

East Croydon – For Tramlink, Thameslink and trains to Brighton, Gatwick and many places on the Sussex Coast.

I think we can assume that if a station is built at Old Oak Common to link Crossrail and the Overground, then the West London Line will be linked into this station with a modern step-free interchange.

London has two high capacity North-South routes that cross the central part of the City; Thameslink and the East London Line.

So could the West London Line be upgraded as a third high capacity North South link?

There are several reasons why this might be done.

1. Waterloo is a difficult station to go to, to get trains for the South West. If I’m going to Portsmouth or Southampton, I generally pick up my long-distance train at Clapham Junction, after using the Overground to get there. An upgraded West London Line would give a route to avoid Waterloo to many travellers.

2. The line would also act as a route to avoid going to Euston in the same way.

3. As the line should be linked to Crossrail and HS2 at Old Oak Common, an upgraded line will improve access to Heathrow and the North  for South and South West London.

4. In my view, the massive development at Earl’s Court needs a good rail link and possibly another station to the North, as it already has West Brompton to the South.

I think that in ten years time, when plans for HS2 and Old Oak Common are being put into concrete, we’ll see the West London Line upgraded to act as a high-capacity route.

The one thing we mustn’t do is build developments such as at Earl’s Court, so that they compromise what we might want to do on the West London Line.

We should make sure that any developments are done in a similar manner to Wembley Central, which has just enclosed the four rail lines underneath in a step-free concrete box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 5, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Clapham Junction Station, Trains, West London Line