West London Orbital
Encyclopedia
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The West London Orbital is a proposed light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
and underground railway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
which was promoted in 2008 by the West London Business
West London Business
West London Business is a Chamber of Commerce organisation representing and promoting business in west London. It represents business and enterprise with any commercial focus across the six 'West London Alliance' boroughs:* Brent* Ealing...
group, a chamber of commerce group in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, UK. The proposal involves the construction of an underground line across west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
The West London Orbital scheme remains at the proposal stage and is not approved or funded.
Background
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 routesOrbirail
Orbirail was a name for a suggested orbital railway route around London. It would involve connecting the extended North London Line, East London Line, the Inner South London Line and the West London Line, possibly including the Gospel Oak to Barking Line. The combined line would orbit London in...
around the city, and existing projects such as London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...
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.
Proposal
A number of routes have been examined for the new metro, and the most promising one is thought by its promoters to be a north-south route running from to SurbitonSurbiton
Surbiton, a suburban area of London in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, is situated next to the River Thames, with a mixture of Art-Deco courts, more recent residential blocks and grand, spacious 19th century townhouses blending into a sea of semi-detached 20th century housing estates...
, via , , and Kingston. The line would connect several London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
and National Rail
National Rail
National Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...
lines, including the forthcoming Crossrail
Crossrail
Crossrail is a project to build a major new railway link under central London. The name refers to the first of two routes which are the responsibility of Crossrail Ltd. It is based on an entirely new east-west tunnel with a central section from to Liverpool Street station...
at Ealing Broadway.
The proposal envisages the West London Orbital operating totally underground, using short driverless light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
trains similar to the Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
, and updated "to the most modern standards" including platform screen doors
Platform screen doors
Platform screen doors and platform edge doors at train or subway stations screen the platform from the train. They are a relatively new addition to many metro systems around the world, with some platform doors retrofitted rather than installed with the metro system itself. They are widely used in...
similar to the Copenhagen metro
Copenhagen Metro
Copenhagen Metro is a rapid transit system serving Copenhagen, Frederiksberg and Tårnby in Denmark. The system opened between 2002 and 2007, and has two lines, M1 and M2. The driverless light metro supplements the larger S-train rapid transit system, and is integrated with DSB local trains and...
in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. The transit time from Brent Cross to Surbiton is quoted as 28 minutes, with a maximum train speed of 80km/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 machine
Tunnel boring machine
A tunnel boring machine also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They can bore through anything from hard rock to sand. Tunnel diameters can range from a metre to almost 16 metres to date...
s (TBMs).
Alternative orbital schemes
West London Orbital is similar to other proposed schemes:- The Park Royal PartnershipPark Royal PartnershipPark Royal Partnership is an urban regeneration partnership, promoting the economic development of Park Royal, London, Europe’s largest industrial area.-Activities:...
is promoting a 'FastBusFastbus, LondonFastbus is a proposed orbital, limited-stop bus service in North-West London.It is proposed to run between Wembley Park station and North Acton station.-Proposal:...
' scheme of branded, limited-stop buses, between and stations and possibly beyond. - The 'North and West London Light Railway' (or the 'Brent Cross Railway') is a proposed rapid transitRapid transitA rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
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.