West Drayton Station – 22nd June 2202
I passed through West Drayton station today and took these pictures.
Note.
- The rebuilding of the station is almost finished.
- There are three platforms that can be used by the Elizabeth Line.
- The new Platform 5 is still to be completed
The station is fully step-free between street and platform, but not between train and platform.
West Drayton Station – 22nd July 2021
West Drayton station is now substantially complete, as these pictures show.
There is obviously work to do including.
- Finishing the station frontage.
- Completion of the building on Platform 4 and 5.
The map from carto metro shows the lines through the station.
Thorney Mill is an aggregates depot on the former Staines and West Drayton Railway. There is also an aviation fuel terminal for Heathrow Airport at Colnbrook, which is further to the South.
I do wonder, if the former Staines and West Drayton Railway can be repurposed to improve the operation of Heathrow Airport.
Three New Step-Free Crossrail Stations – 15th June 2020
I first took a train from Paddington to Langley station, where I took these pictures.
At Langley, I had eight minutes before I caught a train to Iver station, where I took these pictures.
At Iver, I had fifteen minutes before I caught a train to Taplow station, where I took these pictures.
After Taplow, I took the train to West Drayton station, where I took these pictures.
Note the extreme length of the new Platform 5. I can’t find any references to any proposed or possible services terminating at West Drayton, so is Platform 5 for emergency use, if there are problems on the Heathrow Branch and it allows the station to be used as an alternative for Heathrow.A bus would take you to the Airport!
Network Rail Awards Final West London Station Upgrade Contracts For Crossrail Project
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Professional.
The stations are Acton Main Line, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Southall, Hayes & Harlington and West Drayton.
New buildings and step-free access is planned to be completed by December 2020.
Conclusion
About time!
West Drayton Station – 3rd May 2019
I took these pictures at West Drayton station.
Look at the bridge. It is very little different to this picture, which was taken in 2015.
Stairs have been added, but there is no sign of the lifts.
It is surely obvious to the around two million passengers who use the station every year, that little progress is being made at West Drayton station.
Obviously, it was not obvious to Sadiq Khan and his advisers sitting in their bunker South of the River!
He should remember, that he’s a Mayor for all Londoners and not those, who voted him in as an MP.
If there’s a North London candidate in the next Mayoral Election, they will get my vote, even if they’re from the Moster Raving Looney Party!
West Drayton Station – 26th April 2018
I took these pictures at West Drayton station.
The station appeared to be staffed by TfL and they certainly had installed TfL’s new ticket machines.
West Drayton Station – 29th March 2018
These pictures show the progress at West Drayton station.
There’s still quite a bit of work to do.
West Drayton Station – 28th February 2016
This pictures show progress at West Drayton station.
It does appear that there has been significant progress in changing the tracks to the East of the station.
The track work will bring the disused Platform 5 into use. This is the most northerly platform.
West Drayton Station – 27th April 2015
These pictures show the progress at West Drayton station.
Unlike at New Cross Gate, the bridge was built off-site and then lifted into position. This page on the Crossrail web site has a picture of the lift.
This is a Google Earth image of the area round West Drayton station.
West Drayton Station
Note the Grand Junction Canal, which will surely end up as a water-feature at the station.
This page on the Crossrail web site describes how the final station will look.
In the Google Earh image you will notice there are five platform faces, numbered 1 to 5 up the image. 1 and 2 face the two fast lines and 3 and 4 the slow ones. Platform 5 is not used at present and is anyway blocked by the reconstruction of the station. Will it be used in the future?
An Aerial Look At West Drayton Station
In my visit to West Drayton station, I also noted a railway line going away from the main line towards the North West.
West Drayton Station
In this aerial view you can clearly see it branching away at the station, which is marked by the red arrow. It then curves round to go under the Great Western Main Line in a Southerly direction, at the far left of the picture.
This is the Staines and West Drayton Railway and the northern section from West Drayton to Colnbrook is still used by freight trains. Some take fuel to a depot near Heathrow.
It seems to me over the last few years, there have been several proposals to improve the links from places like Reading and the West and Waterloo and South London, some of which pass through this area. But none seem to build on and improve this line.
We know that trains will be able to get from Reading and the West to Heathrow, but all projects to Waterloo and South London like Airtrack, seem to have foundered until now.
On the other hand, when Crossrail and Thameslink are fully operational in 2019, it looks like the journey time between East Croydon and Heathrow, changing at Farringdon will be around an hour. Currently, it looks like it’s a couple of minutes over an hour and a half, with two changes. Fast times need a trip on the expensive Heathrow Express.
I think that the only certainty is that in the next ten years or so, Heathrow and Crossrail/Thameslink will have a tremendous influence on railways in the vicinity of West London.
The Anonymous Widower 