West London Orbital

West London Orbital
Location	London, UK
Proposer	West London Business
Project website	West London Orbital Summary
Status	Proposal
Type	Light metro
Cost estimate	£1.75 billion

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|} The West London Orbital was originally a proposed tube line which was promoted in June 2008 by the West London Business group, a business leadership group in London, UK.^[1] The proposal involves the construction of a fully underground line across West and South West London. It remains at the proposal stage and is not approved or funded.

in September 2017 the West London Alliance of London boroughs announced a different use of the name - for a proposed London Overground service from Hounslow, via Old Oak Common and the Dudding Hill Line, and running either north or south at the Midland Main Line or both ways.

Background of the earlier project

The scheme has been promoted in the context of the shape of London's public transport rail network, which consists mainly of radial lines running into central London. London politicians and other commentators have remarked on the lack of alternative orbital rail routes around the city,^[2]^[3] and existing projects such as London Overground have sought to address these issues.

The stated aim of the West London Orbital proposal is to create an orbital public transport route around west London by connecting several radial railway lines.^[4]

The Earlier Proposal

A number of routes have been examined for the new tube line, and the most promising one is thought by its promoters to be a north-south route running from Template:LUL stations to Surbiton, via Template:LUL stations, Template:LUL stations, Template:LUL stations and Kingston fully underground. The line would connect several London Underground and National Rail lines, including the forthcoming Crossrail 1 at Ealing Broadway.

The proposal envisages the West London Orbital operating totally underground, using short driverless light rail trains similar to the Docklands Light Railway, and updated "to the most modern standards" including platform screen doors similar to the Jubilee line or the Copenhagen metro in Denmark. The transit time from Brent Cross to Surbiton is quoted as 28 minutes, with a maximum train speed of 80 km/h.

The promoters cite a number of reasons why they believe an underground scheme would be cost-effective: tunnelling costs would be lower than ordinary underground projects as the tunnel diameter would be smaller than for a heavy rail scheme; there are no other rail tunnels to avoid (as in central London); and the subsoil strata are suitable for modern tunnel boring machines (TBMs).^[4]

Alternative orbital schemes

The original West London Orbital plan is similar to other earlier proposed schemes:

The Park Royal Partnership is promoting a 'FastBus' scheme^[5] of branded, limited-stop buses, between Template:LUL stations and Template:LUL stations stations and possibly beyond.
The 'North and West London Light Railway' (or the 'Brent Cross Railway') is a proposed rapid transit network. The scheme was originally developed by the London group of the Campaign for Better Transport, and mainly uses existing or abandoned surface railway corridors.

References

^ "Business chief will back west London Tube line". Rail News. 1 July 2008. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
^ Johnson, Boris (2008). "Getting Londoners Moving (Mayoral election manifesto)" (PDF). The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
^ Atkins, Steve (4 July 2007). "It's time more thought was given to improving orbital public transport links within cities" (PDF). Local Transport Today (reproduced by WestTrans group). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ ^a ^b "West London Orbital 2008 Update – a summary" (PDF). West London Business group. April 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ FastBus rapid transit scheme proposed Archived 9 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine

[railnews08-1] "Business chief will back west London Tube line". Rail News. 1 July 2008. Retrieved 7 January 2010.

[boris-manifesto-2] Johnson, Boris (2008). "Getting Londoners Moving (Mayoral election manifesto)" (PDF). The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2010.

[atkins-3] Atkins, Steve (4 July 2007). "It's time more thought was given to improving orbital public transport links within cities" (PDF). Local Transport Today (reproduced by WestTrans group). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

[summary-2008-4] "West London Orbital 2008 Update – a summary" (PDF). West London Business group. April 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

[5] FastBus rapid transit scheme proposed Archived 9 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine

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