Thoughts About The Dudding Hill Line
A friend, who is an expert on the Dudding Hill line or DHL has just e-mailed me after reading my post about Old Oak Common. He says that one of the conditions of the planning permission given for the Radlett Freight Terminal, is that the DHL is opened up, so it can take container traffic. There is a problem at the bridge-cum-tunnel at Harlesden.
I have traced the DHL on the map from where it starts at Cricklewood to past Old Oak Common and on to Acton.
Significantly, its northern end is by Brent Cross Shopping Centre, which is being expanded to form part of the new Brent Cross Cricklewood town centre, for which it is proposed to add a new railway station.
So the line effectively runs between two of London’s biggest and most-needed housing and commercial developments at Brent Cross and Old Oak Common.
I would suspect that there are opportunities for new stations at several places like Neasden and Harlesden.
This whole area of London is rapidly building up a set of questions about public transport that must be answered.
1. How do freight trains from London Gateway and Felixstowe come along the North London line and reach the Radlett Freight Terminal? It’s not clear if it is possible for trains to switch to the Midland Main line in the area of West Hampstead. If not, then that is a possible new piece of infrastructure, that would allow the movements between the ports and Radlett.
2. It has been proposed to put a station at North Acton on the North London line to link with the Central line. Surely, if Old Oak Common is to be built on the Overground, then the interchange to the Underground, would probably be incorporated in that station.
3. Should the Gospel Oak to Barking service be extended past Gospel Oak? As in a few years, this service will be run by new electric trains, which will probably be the Overground’s Class 378, to terminate these services at either Old Oak Common, Clapham Junction or Richmond, would surely make the running of a more frequent service on the GOB easier.
4. If passenger services are to be run on the DHL, then surely this line must be electrified, as this would allow the Overground to run a unified fleet. It would also enable trains to proceed up the Midland Main line, if that was thought to be a worthwhile thing to do. It would also allow freight trains from the west and eventually Southampton to run to Radlett and the north, without a chanmge of motive power en route.
5. If the DHL is electrified then it would probably be using overhead wires, as it effectively links two lines so equipped. So should the short section of the North London line to the west of Acton Central be changed to overhead wires rather than third rail? It would make for a tidier railway, but as the trains are dual voltage, there is no urgency to re-electrify!
The planners in the London Overground part of Transport for London, must be enjoying themselves playing with the best train set in London.
The more I think about all this, especially after seeing how Hackney has responded to being Overgrounded, I come to one conclusion.
If Old Oak Common and Brent Cross stations go ahead, then the Dudding Hill Line must be electrified to take freight trains and an Overground-style passenger train service.
But then what do I know about running trains?
The Ugly Duckling Is Coming To The Aid Of HS2
I’ve called the Overground an ugly ducking that is turning in to a swan before and today, it would appear that it is getting the chance to help out the troubled and unloved HS2. A study has been announced on the Global Rail News website entitled Overground Station For Old Oak Common. Here’s the start of the report.
WSP has been appointed to begin the next stage of planning for a new London Overground station at Old Oak Common.
The consultant is to carry out a Grip 3 study of three options with the hope of establishing the best solution to connect Overground services with the proposed HS2 and Crossrail interchange.
An interchange station at Old Oak Common would certainly make it easier for the good burghers of Hackney and other forgotten areas to access HS2 and Heathrow Airport.
But surely compared to the billions being spent on Crossrail and HS2, a simple interchange station, with links to the Overground, would just be small change. Wikipedia says this.
Proposals being considered by Transport for London include a scheme to realign the routes of the West London and North London line around the Old Oak Common site to create a new London Overground interchange station. The proposal envisages diverting the NLL Richmond route to curve around the eastern side of Old Oak Common, and re-routing the WLL to branch west south of the Mitre Bridge before curving north along a short section of the Dudding Hill Line to join the West Coast Main Line. New platforms serving both the NLL and WLL would be built on the southern side of Old Oak Common, adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs. Alternative versions of this scheme also consider cheaper options such as terminating the WLL at Old Oak Common or two separate London Overground stations.
But perhaps the great and the good don’t want to allow the various plebs and hoi polloi better transport links. They may have also noted that a new station would give better access to Wormwood Scrubs Prison for visitors and escapees.
If Old Oak Common is created as a major interchange, then surely the Gospel Oak to Barking services of the Overground, should be extended at least to the new station. And what about the Dudding Hill line, that passes through the area. Could it finally have found a use except for the odd freight train?
All of this says to me that an Overground station at Old Oak Common is a no-brainer, but then politicians don’t do no-brainers.
The Anonymous Widower 