HS2 has released a new video showing what its new ‘super hub’ West London station will look like. The interchange will also house a new Elizabeth line stop.
Old Oak Common (OOC) station is due to open at some point between 2029 and 2033 and the plan is to connect it to HS2’s Euston terminus at some point. Its potential impact has been compared to that of a London Underground extension.
“Think of the impact the Jubilee Line extension had reaching Canary Wharf,” officials have said, “or the transformative effect high speed rail has brought to the Kings Cross St Pancras area.” Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express – the interchange being only 10 minutes from the UK’s largest airport, will also call at the station.
READ MORE: London Underground station changes made while TfL prepares to test new Piccadilly line trains
At the moment, a 2,000-strong team on the site are making ‘significant progress’ on the excavation of the 850m long underground box that will contain HS2’s high-speed platforms. Engineers are working to complete the excavation of 930,000m3 London clay before the OOC spoil conveyor is decommissioned this summer.
Disruption ‘inevitable’
Disruption to locals, however, is ‘inevitable, the HS2 concedes. The firm has said in a statement: “Despite our best efforts to minimise disruption, there is an inevitable impact on local community while some works are carried out. In order to create the connectivity at the station, the Great Western Main Line needs to be realigned into the station and a new bridge needs to be built over the neighbouring Old Oak Common Lane.
“There is a complex coordination of works needed to make this happen utilities diversions in and around the road. To accommodate double decker buses at the station, the road also needs to be lowered – making the utility diversions even more critical. This phase of complex work will inevitably cause some local disruption and HS2 is working through the options to minimise this as much as possible.”
HS2 and the General Election
As the country approaches the General Election on July 4, the future of the project is uncertain. Labour has not mentioned HS2 in its manifesto.
The Conservatives say: “We will complete HS2 between London Euston and the West Midlands and support the growth of the rail freight sector.” The party has also pledged to ‘raise density levels in inner London’ to those of European cities like Paris and Barcelona.
It adds: “We will ensure the London Plan delivers more family homes a year, forcing the mayor to plan for more homes on brownfield sites, like underused industrial land. We will regenerate major sites like Euston, Old Oak Common and Thamesmead.”
MyLondon had a tour of the station construction site last year. You can read about it here.
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