GREEN LIGHT FOR HS2 SUPERHUB AT OLD OAK COMMON
OLD OAK COMMON STATION FOR HS2 AND CROSSRAIL IS CONFIRMED
PROPOSALS for a superhub station which combines HS2, Crossrail and National Rail services at the heart of the country’s largest redevelopment have been finalised.
During a sensitive time for both HS2 and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development where the station will be based, the official planning application for the station has been submitted.
Estimated to carry around 250,000 passengers each day, the huge new station will be built on former rail and industrial land at the heart of a huge brownfield site which will turn into London’s newest town.
Originally slated to turn 650 hectares into 25,500 new homes and 65,000 new jobs, the development suffered a major blow at the end of last year when it was forced to abandon plans to buy a site owned by Cargiant.
The huge lot owned by the car supermarket is situated right next to the new mega-station, but due to long drawnout legal battle and the rising cost of land in West London, the plans have had to be dropped.
Some now say the development, which has been the largest in the country since the 2012 Olympics, will be much smaller in scale. The Planning Inspectorate which backed Cargiant in the dispute, said only 14,200 homes could now be built with Cargiant removed.
The organisation behind the development, the OPDC, now say it is “a neighbourhood with the potential to create tens of thousands of homes and jobs”.
After a number of consultation events, the updated station design development has been led by engineering professional services consultancy WSP, and architects WilkinsonEyre.
The new station will provide direct interchange with rail services through eight ‘conventional’ train platforms, to be served by Crossrail (aka the Elizabeth Line) as well as Great Western Railway services.
That means HS2 passengers can get to Heathrow, Central and East London, and trains to Wales and the West of England.
The other part of the station will have another six high-speed platforms underground, which connect with other services at the rest of the station via an overbridge, while a huge concourse links the two halves of the station.
The underground platforms will be built in a 850-metre long underground box, with each platform measuring 450 metres.
Twin tunnels will then take high-speed trains east to the HS2 terminus at Euston and west to the outskirts of London.
The former Euroterminal depot at nearby Willesden will lend a hand by transporting the excavated materials during the construction work. The depot was intended to be used for freight traffic from the Channel Tunnel.
The roof of Old Oak Common station has taken inspiration from the industrial heritage of the area.
As well as the new station, a new public park will be built to the west providing a ‘focal point’ for the community.
They will also widen and lower Old Oak Common Lane, to improve access to the station for buses and pedestrians.
Preparatory works have been ongoing since 2017 and will soon be ready for the joint-venture construction partners Balfour Beatty Vinci Systra (BBVS) to take over.
So far, 32,000 cubic meters of former rail depot sheds and outbuildings have been dismantled, working through 105,000 cubic meters of earth to clear the site and remove any contamination which has built up over a century of continuous railway use.
Adrian Tooth, WSP Project Director on Old Oak Common, said: “Old Oak Common has been designed to be a landmark destination within the UK’s transport network and will be a force for regeneration in West London, supporting new jobs and homes within the wider OPDC area.
“The design responds to the station’s function, as two-thirds of those using the station will be interchanging between the belowground HS2 and the above-ground conventional rail services.”
The Schedule 17 planning application has been submitted to OPDC who are expected to approve the station application by September 2020.
As well as the main station, OPDC and Transport for London hope to build two London Overground stations in the development a few hundred metres north and south of the hub station.