West London Orbital - An Often Overlooked Transport Project
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- Опубліковано 20 лис 2023
- A summary of the West London Orbital project, a project currently proposed between Hendon/West Hampstead and Hounslow/Kew Bridge. In this video I will be discussing the history of the project, including the stretches of track it will use, the stations it stops at and the current state of the areas it will serve. I hope you all enjoy watching this, expect similar content in the future! I really hope you enjoy this informative but yet enthusiast-y style content and would like it if you could like, subscribe and share this video.
It's worth mentioning that some of these photos featuring in this video aren't my own - all copyright goes to their respectful owners.
Thank you all for watching - hope to upload at some point in the next few days my next video so stay tuned for that.
Copyright SomeNorthLondoner 2023
Music used: Massobeats - honey jam
freetouse.com/music - Розваги
Congratulations on your 1st video. Fascinating insight to the travel metropolis around London. So much update to infrastructure is needed to keep up with times and demands. Look forward to your future content.
Living in Hendon but working in Central London, I used to visit my sister in Hounslow on the weekends via Bank (the tube station I loathe most of all), the Waterloo & City Line (vile during rush hour), then waiting at Waterloo (my least favourite terminus) for a rare non-cancelled train from the criminally useless Southwestern Trains.
This Orbital would have made it so easy to make the trip direct from home. And most likely a more pleasant trip too.
One super-unrealisic fantasy idea I've always had for the WLO and the railways in SW London in general have been to combine them with a "Heathrow Southern Access". Having the line continue on from Hounslow to Feltham and Ashford before entering a tunnel into Heathrow.
This tunnel can also be used from the Staines direction allowing longer distance routes from Southampton, Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Guildford and Woking etc to run into Heathrow thus making it a real transport hub similar to Amsterdam Schipol.
Anyways great first video, always love to see more London transport focused channels on youtube. Love the in-person station/location visits, keep em coming!
It would certainly be helpful but I imagine if the Southern Access were to be constructed Clapham Junction would no doubt be more preferable than Acton and Old Oak Common (given they're connected already) so I imagine it would be SWR running Waterloo to Heathrow services and running services past Hounslow is a challenge due to flat junctions
Just found your channel and learned so much from your videos! Thanks for the great content.
Thanks very much! Glad you like it!
Thank you for bringing this project to our attention, a well put together video . I look forward to developments. In the meantime I have pressed the subscribe and the like buttons
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Great video. Please keep them coming.
Excellent first video. My only feedback for you is to watch your audio levels, as the level wandered around in the beginning, causing some volume chasing. Good job!
Thank you! I have uploaded other videos since then which have improved editing/audio so feel free to check those out 😃
@@somenorthlondoner Will do!
Congratulations on a great video. I have subscribed and will eagerly await future videos like this.
Very good video, but some of your pronunciations made me chuckle !! By the way the extension plans for Brent Cross Shopping Centre have been cancelled, and with them, the plans for the new bus station on a raft over the A406. What you refer to as a new bus station at Brent Cross West Station is actually only a couple of bus stops on each side of the station. The 316 will extend from 9th October on paper to the west side of the station (but guess may be curtailed locally until the following day to tie in with the firtst day of the new statiin (albeit it looks like only a reduced service that day because of engineering work). On the east side of the station, the plan is to extend the 326 to there and divert the 189 via there. The roads needed for the proposed route have not all been built yet, so although a temporary route will no doubt have to be used for some time, it appears even thar road, although built, has not yet been finished off, so there is no date for the189 and 326 changes yet. A (presumably) temporary bus stand / turning area has however been built and looks ready to recieve buses.
When i saw barkingriverside on the thumbnail, i thought this was going to be about what i saw when i last traveled in that area on a c2c service to chafford hundred. I saw a massive site with brand new tracks (i believe this was after upminster, but i could be wrong) and all that looking like either a station was gna be built or some sort of link or maybe a depot who knows.
You sort of touched on it at the end but then went cold again when you mentioned the swr service and the putney branch etc.
But let me know if you know of anything i mentioned here. Great video again as it goes👍🏽
Thorough and well presented, thank you
Really comprehensive video on the topic and well edited!
The level crossings could be replaced by underpasses and or bridges. Thanks for an interesting and infromative video.
lovely idea but those would be extremely expensive
Yes, but no doubt the cost of that would scupper the whole scheme.
Definitely, the Netherlands does this very well as they've been converting a lot of their level crossings this way without having closing important roads through the middle of their towns
@@goodwood-rc4nx Maybe to make it cheaper add a footbridge for pedestrians and change the roads to buses only so that the bus routes aren't affected and won't be delayed by road traffic.
That would be difficult in an urban area without redevelopment of the area around.
This video is so high quality I was shocked to see you didn't have thousands of subs
Thank you so much! Unfortunately I’ve only just started out making these types of videos so I’m quite far off thousands of subs but it is growing, slowly but surely :)
Thank you for your hard work making and sharing this. A great effort and very useful information - you'll be doing colabs with a certain Mr. G. Marshall in no time 😀. Liked and subbed 👍🏿
Thank you so much!
Really fantastic video!
Thanks a lot!
Hello. I know the area quite well, so a (large) number of points. 1: You have confused the Midland and South Western Junction Railway with the North and South Western Junction Railway. The MSWJR ran from Cheltenham to Andover via Swindon: quite a distance from West London.🙂2: There is a real problem with Acton Wells Junction where five lines all join on the flat. There is also Acton Wharf Junction a short distance to the north as well. With the heavy through freight traffic plus the existing North London Line service, this could result in the junctions becoming over-trafficked. This may have to be addressed by infrastructure and signalling work. 3: The line south of Acton Wells to South Acton will also become over-trafficked and may result in considerable signalling work to permit closer headways. 4: Kew Bridge Station will need a platform on the north side of Lionel Road, parallel to the existing station. This will require a derogation due to the sharp curve. 5: Lionel Road Station may also be on a curve. 6: Old Kew Junction is single lead and will have to be altered. 7: Hounslow may require a reversing siding. There were two just to the southwest and there is still room. 8: The level crossing at Acton Central will have to be closed and replaced by pedestrian underpass. Uxbridge Road/High Street is nearby, so it won't be a great loss to motorists. A pedestrian underpass is preferred as the area is residential. It'll only be about ten metres long, though. 9: The level crossings at Bollo Lane are virtually insoluble. You cannot close both as access is required to properties between them. That leaves an underpass, which may be of considerable restricted headroom in the region of just over 4 metres. 10: Isleworth Station is extremely restricted as to platform width and length. 11: There are three mechanical signal boxes, all of which need to be replaced. This will be done with the signalling work. 12: The platform at West Hampstead station will occupy the area to the south of the existing Midland station occupying the goods line headshunt (redundant?) presently occupying the area. The goods line will be repurposed. 12: A planning proposal for Neasden Lane has just been put forward to the council that will involve a possible raised walkway between the proposed Neasden Lane and existing Neasden Stations, subject to approval, etc. 13: I suspect the line from Brent Cross West to Hendon will be de-scoped. Otherwise, good first effort. Careful with cut-offs, coughs and the accidental recording of unwanted comments, though. 👍
Hello,
Thank you for all of this information, a lot of this I didn't know so thanks for bringing it to my attention! Yes Acton Wells is quite the frustrating junction and there really isn't much space within the area for more track. It would be interesting to see the flat junction leaving South Acton towards Gunnersbury/Power Road as well, plus that's not even including the (albeit rare) freight movements within the area.
On the Neasden point, I wrote this script (mostly) about 5 months ago so things could have very well changed on that front however a walkway a-la Willesden Junction style does make sense and hopefully something else could be done at Harlesden. It's not the nicest walking along Acton Lane especially as Acton Lane is almost always full of traffic.
The cut offs (as in transition to shots outside each individual station) were intentional, as far as I know I don't think any unwanted comments made it into the final recording and yes whilst recording I did have a slight cough (forgot to take allergy tablets). Anyway, thanks for your feedback!
14:05 😳 havent seen this livery in agesssss wow #throwback
Im sure these used to run on the GEML?
Yep from Stratford eastbound!
A solution to the level crossings at South Acton and Acton Central could be to build an underpass or footbridge over the railway or via the stations and change the roads to buses only. That way the bus routes won't be affected as much by road traffic when waiting at the crossings.
There is already an underpass at Acton Central which currently allows access from one platform to the other. At one time it could be used by pedestrians from one side of the crossing to the other.
Interesting.
It would be so amazing if they opened a station at Craven Park along the Dudden Hill line, an area completely overlooked by TFL transport
Not too sure on whether it’s overlooked given stations are nearby but a station nearby serving the area in the form of Harlesden would be good I think
Not that nearby, it’s 25 minute walk to Neasden’s from the old craven park railway station, and 15 minute walk from Harlesden, and no direct bus. Considering how poorly this particular area was hit by the most deprived by covid, and the biggest gap in distance between any proposed station on the WLO I think it would be invaluable to the residents, possibly life changing. The residents are so overlooked by Brent/ TFL nobody even seems sure what the name of the place they actually live in is? I think that TFL could save money setting up two new stations at Harlesden and Neasden by building just one station at craven park that would serve everybody better. I would love to know your thoughts?
@@enki6689 I don’t know about that really because lots of areas that are 15+ minutes walk away from a railway station aren’t lucky enough to be served by a train station, I think a 15 minute walk is standard and there’s also the interchange that Neasden and Harlesden would offer, the latter of which would reduce overcrowding on the North London Line I should imagine :)
good video
cheers bud :)
10:45. You have to thank Brent as you used to be able to drive across from IKEA and St Raphs estate back into Stonebridge but now it’s bus only meaning you have no choice but to use the North Circular hence traffic problems. Only Blackbird Hill and Harrow Road are the two ways to get over the North Circ (you can use Abbey Road but that’s just proper long!)
The north Circular takes a lot of unnecessary traffic weight in NW London…
Yes it does!
Level crossings at Acton are a big pain. Still a good idea for the future.
Yep maybe they could build a tunnel
The North London Line made a difference, and the Gospel Oak-Barking variant, rather underused, can branch off from the West Hampstead Overground. At the same time, one gets tempted to take Watford under Watford Central to St Albans, thence between Hatfield and WGC to Hertford East, giving North London an outer ring comparable to the Reigate cross-country to the South.
I don’t think the GOBLIN can branch off at West Hampstead Overground as the grade separated incline from the MML would be too steep and would probably mean a complete rebuild of the Overground station which would massively disrupt the NLL and MML. It would also cross a flat junction at Gospel Oak which would disrupt the current service freq on NLL. Far better off grade separating it in the form of a tunnel, would also be useful for freight but fat chance of it ever happening. The GOBLIN definitely isn’t underused and I really hope they pursue a 5tph frequency, although might be slightly less possible given the Riverside extension. Thanks for watching 😊
@@somenorthlondoner Don't forget the Camden Town HS2 connector.
@@somenorthlondoner I also hope for an increased service level on the GOBLIN. Is there any research on what frequency brings in the biggest transfer of people from car to public transport? To me 8ph would be the point at which most people would be prepared to 'turn up and go' - few would mind waiting for 7/8 minutes when making a typical journey in outer London. Most of my friends in suburban London have cars, for the reason that the rag-bag of half-hourly services on main-line rail just isn't attractive, and buses are too slow: maybe Superloop will help - much of their travel is around London rather than to the centre.
Another GOBLIN improvement would be an interchange with the Northern line at Tuffnell Park - transfers to/from the Northern in north London are a missing element on the OG. Also easier/better-signed walking routes at Harringay etc..
Very many thanks for an excellent video
There were two "Midland & South Western Junction Railways". The picture of the steam train you show near the start is (of course) the other one, that ran from Cheltenham to Andover. Bad luck! :) 5:27
Yeah my apologies lol. Hope you still enjoyed the rest of the video?
its a very nice video not gonna lie (attracted my interest seen as i was reading about this thing recently) but may i suggest to keep a steady volume when talking, cus sometimes it felt like my eardrums would go... :/ great stuff nevertheless!
You could maybe build a new station at Acton to solve those problems?
Not particularly viable given the line between South and Central is very residential and Central is actually very well located
12:02 Where's the double decker on the low loader gone‽
This was filmed back in July but Thornton’s for refurbishment
@@somenorthlondoner
Thank you for the extra bit of information. I of course looked it up, not being a bus spotter and was amazed to see how far away from here it was and shocked to learn that it's the only one left repairing sick and injured omnibuses!
I’m from Reading so not exactly t North, but if this was to happen don’t you think the people who have lost their HS2 link will think things are yet again London based!!!!!
Not really, all the infrastructure is existing and is a lot more cost effective than having to build entirely new railway lines (not to say they shouldn’t be).
I love these rail videos, as much for the bizarre pronunciation of words and names than anything else.