Old Oak key to high speed rail plans

Tuesday November 8, 2011

Old Oak Common could be the only London terminus for the rapid rail link between London and the north, according to the House of Commons Transport Committee.

A new generation of high speed trains - running at 250mph - could terminate just north of Wormwood Scrubs in the north of the borough with passengers transferring to central London via Crossrail or the tube.

The move would ‘avoid the significant capital costs’ of building the line between Old Oak Common and Euston as well as the tube capacity improvements that would be required at Euston, according to the report released by MPs today (Nov 8).

The report says: ‘It should be noted that most travellers going to Euston for business purposes will still have onward journeys to make to either the City or the West End. If that is so, then the Government should reassess whether terminating at either Old Oak Common or another station on the Crossrail network might not be a more effective solution given concerns about the capacity of Euston.’

There is also a ‘good case’ for high speed rail, or HS2 as it is also known, according to the committee with more than half of the 40,000 jobs directly associated with the project due to be created in London - including 20,000 at Old Oak Common.

Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council has long argued that HS2 would transform one of Britain’s poorest neighbourhoods if Old Oak Common became one of the main stations on the route. Vast swathes of derelict or underused industrial land would be transformed into London’s newest city, dubbed Park Royal City, according to the council.

Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, H&F Council Leader, says: “HS2 is the fastest way to deliver much need new homes, jobs and opportunities in one of London's poorest areas and the case for an interchange station at Old Oak is overwhelming.”

“The Old Oak super hub is vital to making the overall HS2 plans work properly as it will relieve pressure on central London terminals, like Euston, that will not be able to cope with the huge number of additional passengers on their own.

“The creation of a new interchange at Old Oak, or Park Royal City International as it will be known, will unleash the creation of a new business hub bigger than Canary Wharf, bringing thousands of affordable homes and jobs to London.

“Britain needs High Speed 2, not just because of the vast transport improvements it would bring, we need it to lay the foundations of economic growth for decades to come.

“We are already seeing the potential benefits of this in west London with plans to effectively build a new city, bringing 20,000 jobs to an area where nearly half the people living there are unemployed."

New homes, businesses and a new waterside park along the Grand Union Canal would all be built around a 21st century transport super-hub according to a planning version drawn up by Sir Terry Farrell.

Around half of working age adults within 1.2miles of the new city, including residents in the neighbouring boroughs of Brent, Ealing and K&C, are unemployed and some parts of Old Oak are in the bottom 1% of most deprived areas nationally.

Park Royal City is being promoted as the location for an HS2 station as:

• It would take pressure off central London terminals like Euston which would have to cope with 13,000 extra passengers an hour without the high-speed hub at Old Oak
• It would properly link four of the nation’s major airports to the high speed rail network for the first time. Heathrow would be just 11 minutes away. Three other airports (Luton, Stansted and City Airport) would be within 30 minutes
• The site possesses unrivalled road and rail connections e.g. Great Western and West Coast mainlines, Crossrail, West and North London Lines, Bakerloo and Central Underground lines, Heathrow Express, A40 and North Circular Road

Paul Keegan, Chairman of the Old Oak Tenants and Residents’ Association, said local residents are ‘100% behind’ the Old Oak interchange.

The Department for Transport is expected to make an announcement on the proposed stations for HS2 in December.

For more click on www.lbhf.gov.uk/hs2.