West London line

West London Line
Overview
Owner	Network Rail
Termini	Willesden Junction Clapham Junction
Stations	6
Service
Type	Commuter rail
Operator(s)	London Overground Southern
Rolling stock	British Rail Class 313 British Rail Class 377 British Rail Class 378

West London Line
North London line to Stratford Bakerloo line Harrow │ Elephant & Castle Willesden Junction Watford DC line Watford Junction │ Euston West Coast Main Line via Watford Junction │ Euston Willesden Junction North London line to Richmond Mitre Bridge Junction Grand Union Canal Great Western Main Line Bristol │ Paddington North Pole depot North Pole Junction St. Quintin Park and Wormwood Scrubs overhead AC third rail DC changeover Great Western Railway goods line to North Acton Circle/Hammersmith & City lines Hammersmith │ via Liverpool Street link closed 1940 Uxbridge Road Out of station interchange Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush (LU) Central line London & South Western Rly to Richmond via link closed 1916 Hammersmith (Grove Road)   Kensington (Olympia) link lifted 1992 District line to Richmond or Ealing Broadway Warwick Road goods yard Piccadilly line to Heathrow or Uxbridge District line via Earl's Court Piccadilly line to Cockfosters West Brompton District line to Wimbledon Chelsea & Fulham Imperial Wharf Chelsea Basin goods yard Cremorne Bridge over River Thames Battersea Latchmere Southwest Jct   South West Main Line to Waterloo   South London lines to Victoria   South London line to London Bridge   Clapham Junction   South London line and Brighton Main Line   Waterloo–Reading line South West Main Line to Weymouth

West London Line trains at Kensington (Olympia)

Line map of the West London Line, including planned and under construction stations, showing connections and travelcard zones

The West London Line is a short railway linking Clapham Junction in the south to Willesden Junction in the north. It was built to enable trains to cross London.

The West Cross Route, one side of the Ringway 1 inner ring road, would have paralleled the West London Line.

Train services

Local trains run every half hour and are operated by London Overground. Hourly Southern trains run between East Croydon (previously Brighton) and Milton Keynes (previously Watford Junction), not stopping at Willesden Junction. The twice daily Crosscountry services from Brighton to Birmingham New Street via Reading has been discontinued (December 2008). The line also carries considerable freight and was used by Eurostar trains between Waterloo International and the depot at North Pole Junction prior to November 2007.

Recent timetable changes have meant that some London Overground peak hour trains now continue beyond Willesden Junction onto the North London Line to Stratford.

History of the line

The railway between Wormwood Scrubs and Shepherds Bush opened in 1844. It came to prominence as an avoiding line facilitating through-running on the west side of London, especially for freight:

• The West London Joint Railway (WLJR) owned by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR)
• The West London Extension Joint Railway: GWR/L&NWR/London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR)/London and South Western Railway (L&SWR)

The West London Railway was originally called the Birmingham, Bristol & Thames Junction Railway, authorised in 1836 to run from the London and Birmingham Railway across the proposed route of the Great Western, to the Kensington Canal Basin. Trials to show off the potential of the atmospheric railway system were held from 1840 to 1843 on a half-mile section of track adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs, leased to the system's promoters; but in the event the line itself proceeded with conventional power. Construction was delayed by a number of problems, both engineering and financial, but renamed the West London Railway the line officially opened on 27 May, 1844, with regular services beginning on 10 June. It was not a commercial success. The minimal level of passenger returns became such a regular target of Punch magazine that the line started being called Punch's Railway; and after less than six months it closed entirely on 30 November. An Act of 1845 authorised the Great Western and the London and Birmingham to take out a joint lease of the West London line, but passenger services were not restarted, and the line was used only to carry coal. A further Act in 1859 released the companies to fill in the canal from the Kensington basin as far south as the bridge under the Kings Road, and to construct the West London Extension Joint Railway to meet the lines south of the river at Clapham Junction. The line re-opened on 2 March 1863 with a new passenger station at Kensington, and was then well used by a variety of Middle Circle and other services for the remainder of the nineteenth century.

The northern section of the line, from Willesden Junction to Earls Court via Kensington Olympia, was electrified by LNWR in 1915, but use of the line dwindled with the construction of the deep-level Underground network, and passenger services were discontinued after bomb damage in 1940. The line remained in service as an important freight link, and passenger services were subsequently resumed on 1 June 1999, with new platforms at West Brompton. The line is electrified at 750 V DC third rail from the south to the North Pole depot, where the electrification changes to 25 kV AC overhead). The work was carried out as part of Channel Tunnel infrastructure improvements in 1993.

The route

This description of the line gives, from north to south, former and current details including links with all the constituent railways:

• Willesden Junction
  WLL trains use the high level station on the North London Line. There is interchange with the Bakerloo Line and Watford DC Line.
• West London Junction
  The line separates from the North London Line.
• North Pole Junction
  End-on junction; connection to former Eurostar North Pole depot, which is parallel to the GWR main line. The WLJR proper starts here. A limited CrossCountry service between Reading and Brighton used the unelectrified connection with the Great Western Main Line until December 2008.
• St. Quintin Park and Wormwood Scrubs (closed)
• Shepherd's Bush New station on the site of the former Uxbridge Road station, opened September 2008. Interchange with Central Line.
• Kensington (Olympia) (formerly Addison Road)
  Interchange with the District Line
• West London Extension Junction
  End-on junction connecting the two parts of the Line; here also were extensive goods yards owned by LNWR and GWR
• West Brompton
  Interchange with District Line
• Chelsea & Fulham (closed)
  Here was a goods line to Chelsea Basin
• Imperial Wharf
• Battersea Railway Bridge/Cremorne Bridge
  Here the Line crosses the River Thames
• Battersea High Street (closed)
• Latchmere Junctions
  With connections to the L&SWR and LB&SCR
• Clapham Junction
  Interchange with other National Rail lines and the western extension of the East London Line

Further reading

• Template:Harvard reference.
• Thomas Faulkner (1839), The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Hammersmith, pp 65–68.

J.B. Atkinson "The West London Joint Railways" Ian Allan 1984.

Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith "West London Line - Clapham Jn. to Willesden Jn." London Suburban Railways Series, Middleton Press 1996.

External links

• West London Line Group, representing the interests of users of the West London Line
• West London Line from abandonedstations.org.uk