The
West London Line is a short railway linking Clapham Junction in the south to
Willesden JunctionWillesden Junction station is a Network Rail station in Harlesden, north-west London; it is served by both London Overground and London Underground Bakerloo line trains...
in the north. It was built to enable trains to cross London.
The
West Cross RouteThe West Cross Route is a short, 0.75 mile dual carriageway section of the A3220 route in central London. It runs north-south between the northern elevated roundabout junction with the western end of the Westway and the southern Holland Park Roundabout. It opened in 1970, together with the...
, one side of the
Ringway 1Ringway 1 or the London Motorway Box was the innermost of the series of four London Ringways, ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre...
inner
ring roadRing road is another term for beltway. It may also refer to:* Ring Road * Ring Road * Ring Road * Ring road of Iceland* Ring Road * "Ring Road", a song by the electronic band, Underworld....
, would have paralleled the West London 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
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835, and ran its first trains three years later...
(GWR) and the London and North Western RailwayThe London and North Western Railway was a railway company of the United Kingdom which existed between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three railway companies - the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. During the late...
(L&NWR)
- The West London Extension Joint Railway: GWR/L&NWR/London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
(LB&SCR)/London and South Western RailwayThe London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...
(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 RailwayThe London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 to 1846 when it became part of the London and North Western Railway ....
across the proposed route of the Great Western, to the
Kensington CanalThe Kensington Canal was a canal in London, which led from the River Thames at Chelsea, along the line of the Counter's Creek stream, up to Kensington, where there was a basin near Warwick Road, opening in 1828...
Basin.
The
West London Line is a short railway linking Clapham Junction in the south to
Willesden JunctionWillesden Junction station is a Network Rail station in Harlesden, north-west London; it is served by both London Overground and London Underground Bakerloo line trains...
in the north. It was built to enable trains to cross London.
The
West Cross RouteThe West Cross Route is a short, 0.75 mile dual carriageway section of the A3220 route in central London. It runs north-south between the northern elevated roundabout junction with the western end of the Westway and the southern Holland Park Roundabout. It opened in 1970, together with the...
, one side of the
Ringway 1Ringway 1 or the London Motorway Box was the innermost of the series of four London Ringways, ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre...
inner
ring roadRing road is another term for beltway. It may also refer to:* Ring Road * Ring Road * Ring Road * Ring road of Iceland* Ring Road * "Ring Road", a song by the electronic band, Underworld....
, would have paralleled the West London Line.
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
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835, and ran its first trains three years later...
(GWR) and the London and North Western RailwayThe London and North Western Railway was a railway company of the United Kingdom which existed between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three railway companies - the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. During the late...
(L&NWR)
- The West London Extension Joint Railway: GWR/L&NWR/London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
(LB&SCR)/London and South Western RailwayThe London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...
(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 RailwayThe London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 to 1846 when it became part of the London and North Western Railway ....
across the proposed route of the Great Western, to the
Kensington CanalThe Kensington Canal was a canal in London, which led from the River Thames at Chelsea, along the line of the Counter's Creek stream, up to Kensington, where there was a basin near Warwick Road, opening in 1828...
Basin. Trials to show off the potential of the
atmospheric railwayAn atmospheric railway uses air pressure to provide power for propulsion. A pneumatic tube is laid between the rails, with a piston running in it suspended from the train through a sealable slot in the top of the tube...
system were held from 1840 to 1843 on a half-mile section of track adjacent to
Wormwood ScrubsWormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs, is an open space located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London. It is the largest open space in the Borough, at 80 ha , and one of the largest areas of common land in London...
, 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
PunchPunch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002. Punch material was also collected in book formats as early as the 1800s, including Pick of the Punch annuals with cartoons and text features, Punch and the War a 1941 collection of...
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 RoadKing's Road or Kings Road, known popularly as The King's Road or The KR, is a major, well-known street in west London, England...
, 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 CircleThe Outer Circle was a railway route in London operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries over tracks which are now mainly owned by Network Rail but include parts of the London Underground...
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
LNWRThe London, Midland and Scottish Railway was involved in the development of railway electrification of Britain. Like the LNER and the SR the LMS took over several schemes that had been developed by its constituent companies and also completed some of its own. All were suburban lines, in London,...
in 1915, but use of the line dwindled with the construction of the deep-level
UndergroundThe London Underground, Underground or Tube is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the UK. The first section opened in 1863, and was the first underground railway system in the world, and, starting in...
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 by the mid-1990s. The line is
electrifiedRailway electrification in Great Britain describes the past and present electrification systems used to supply traction current to railways and tramways in Great Britain with a chronological record of development, a list of lines using each system, and a history and a technical description of each...
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. Platforms were reinstated at
West Brompton stationWest Brompton is a Network Rail West London Line and London Underground District Line station in west London. It is located on Old Brompton Road immediately south of Earls Court Exhibition Centre and to the west of Brompton Cemetery....
in 1999, and within the subsequent 10 years, new stations were opened at
Shepherd's BushShepherd's Bush station is a new railway station on the West London Line of the London Overground and Southern Rail network, opened on 28 September 2008. It provides an interchange with the nearby Shepherd's Bush Central line tube station...
(2008) and
Imperial WharfImperial Wharf is a railway station on the border of Chelsea and Fulham in west London on the West London Line. The station is between West Brompton and Clapham Junction stations and services are provided by London Overground and Southern trains....
(2009), bringing main line rail services to a large catchment area in West London.
Train services
Local trains operated by
London OvergroundLondon Overground is a commuter rail service in London, UK, the brand applied by Transport for London to the services on four railway lines: the Watford DC Line, the North London Line, the West London Line and the Gospel Oak to Barking Line.The name has been used since 2007, when TfL took over...
run every half hour between Clapham and Willesden Junctions. Recent timetable changes have meant that some London Overground peak hour trains now continue beyond Willesden Junction onto the
North London LineThe North London Line is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of London, England. Its route is a rough semicircle from the south west to the north east, avoiding central London. The line is owned and maintained by Network Rail...
to
StratfordStratford station is a railway station in Stratford, Newham, East London on National Rail, London Underground, London Overground and Docklands Light Railway lines. It is served by the Underground Central and Jubilee lines, and by London Overground, National Express East Anglia and c2c. It is in...
.
The train operating company
SouthernSouthern is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. Officially named Southern Railway Ltd., it is a subsidiary of Govia, a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, and has operated the South Central rail franchise since October 2000 and the Gatwick Express service...
runs hourly trains between and . The service previously ran from to . Southern services do not stop at
Willesden JunctionWillesden Junction station is a Network Rail station in Harlesden, north-west London; it is served by both London Overground and London Underground Bakerloo line trains...
.
A twice-daily
CrosscountryCrossCountry is the brand name of XC Trains Ltd., a British train operating company owned by Arriva. The company operates a network of express and long-distance train services between a variety of towns and cities outside London.- Formation :...
service operated by Virgin CrossCountry used to run from
BrightonBrighton is a town in the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex on the south coast of Great Britain...
via
ReadingReading is a large town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London...
and Kensington (Olympia) to Birmingham New Street, but this was discontinued in December 2008.
Until the opening of the High Speed 1 railway line in November 2007, the West London Line was used to transfer
EurostarEurostar is a high-speed railway passenger service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains cross under the English Channel via the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....
trains from to the depot at North Pole Junction.
The West London Line line also carries a considerable number of
freight trainA freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by a locomotive on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...
s.
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
Willesden Junction station is a Network Rail station in Harlesden, north-west London; it is served by both London Overground and London Underground Bakerloo line trains...
WLL trains use the high level station on the North London LineThe North London Line is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of London, England. Its route is a rough semicircle from the south west to the north east, avoiding central London. The line is owned and maintained by Network Rail...
. There is interchange with the Bakerloo LineThe Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from the Elephant and Castle in south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in north-west of London. The lines serves 25 stations of which 15 are underground...
and Watford DC LineThe Watford DC Line is a commuter railway line from London Euston to Watford Junction.Services on the line are operated by London Overground...
.
- West London Junction
The line separates from the North London Line.
- North Pole Junction
End-on junction; connection to former EurostarEurostar is a high-speed railway passenger service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains cross under the English Channel via the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....
North Pole depotNorth Pole depot was the London depot for Eurostar, and until November 2007, it was used for maintaining and stabling the fleet of British Rail Class 373 trains...
, which is parallel to the GWR main line. The WLJR proper starts here. A limited CrossCountryCrossCountry is the brand name of XC Trains Ltd., a British train operating company owned by Arriva. The company operates a network of express and long-distance train services between a variety of towns and cities outside London.- Formation :...
service between ReadingReading is a large town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London...
and BrightonBrighton is a town in the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex on the south coast of Great Britain...
used the unelectrified connection with the Great Western Main LineThe Great Western Main Line is a main line railway in Great Britain that runs westwards from London Paddington station to the west of England and South Wales. The core Great Western Main Line runs from London Paddington to Temple Meads station in Bristol...
until December 2008.
- St. Quintin Park and Wormwood Scrubs (closed)
- Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush station is a new railway station on the West London Line of the London Overground and Southern Rail network, opened on 28 September 2008. It provides an interchange with the nearby Shepherd's Bush Central line tube station...
New station on the site of the former Uxbridge Road stationUxbridge Road was a London Underground station on a branch of the Metropolitan Line which closed on 20 September 1940.The branch ran north from Addison Road station following the mainline tracks of the West London Railway northwards and joined the Metropolitan Line branch from Hammersmith just...
, opened September 2008. Interchange with Central LineThe Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Out of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
.
- Kensington (Olympia)
Kensington station is a station in West London managed and served by London Overground and also served by National Rail and London Underground. It is in Travelcard Zone 2...
(formerly Addison Road)
Interchange with the District LineThe District line is a line of the London Underground, coloured green on the Tube map. It is a "sub-surface" line, running through the central area in shallow cut-and-cover tunnels. It is the busiest of the sub-surface lines and the third busiest overall on the Underground network. Out of the 60...
- 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
West Brompton is a Network Rail West London Line and London Underground District Line station in west London. It is located on Old Brompton Road immediately south of Earls Court Exhibition Centre and to the west of Brompton Cemetery....
Interchange with District LineThe District line is a line of the London Underground, coloured green on the Tube map. It is a "sub-surface" line, running through the central area in shallow cut-and-cover tunnels. It is the busiest of the sub-surface lines and the third busiest overall on the Underground network. Out of the 60...
- Chelsea & Fulham (closed)
Here was a goods line to Chelsea Basin
- Imperial Wharf
Imperial Wharf is a railway station on the border of Chelsea and Fulham in west London on the West London Line. The station is between West Brompton and Clapham Junction stations and services are provided by London Overground and Southern trains....
- Battersea Railway Bridge/Cremorne Bridge
The Battersea Railway Bridge - properly called the Cremorne Bridge, after the pleasure grounds in Chelsea and originally commonly referred to as the Battersea New Bridge - is a bridge across the River Thames in London, between Battersea and Chelsea and forming part of the West London Line of the...
Here the Line crosses the River ThamesThe River Thames is a major river flowing through southern England. While best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows through several other towns and cities, including Oxford, Reading and Windsor....
- Battersea
Battersea railway station was a station on the West London Extension Railway on Battersea High Street. It opened on 1 Oct 1863 and closed on 1 November 1940 after air raid damage. It was near the existing rail bridge at the end of the pedestrianised area of Battersea High Street by the junction...
(closed)
- Latchmere Junctions
With connections to the L&SWR and LB&SCR
- Clapham Junction
Clapham Junction railway station is near St John's Hill in the south-west of Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Many routes from London's two busiest termini, Waterloo and Victoria, funnel through Clapham Junction and so the station is one of the busiest in Europe by number of trains...
Interchange with other National Rail lines and the western extension of the East London LineThe East London line was a line of the London Underground, coloured orange on the Tube map. It ran north to south through the East End and Docklands areas of London, entirely in Travelcard Zone 2...
Further reading
.
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