Last week TfL launched a consultation for the West London Orbital, a new Overground route connecting Hounslow and Hendon. It's an easy win, almost entirely following existing tracks and linking key growth hubs including Old Oak Common. If all goes well it could be operational by 2035, which is almost immediate in transport project terms, and seemingly with very few downsides. Except there is an issue for some of those who live nearby because three level crossings may need to be completely closed, including one the new line won't even use.
Here's the new line with the three level crossings along the route shown by orange arrows. Closing them wouldn't be popular.
And they might have to close simply because they wouldn't be open very much any more.
"Under current railway operating rules, the level crossing barriers - which are already lowered for around 40% to 50% of the time during the day - would be closed for longer periods. When WLO services are added, the barriers would be lowered for up to 75% of the time for periods as long as 11 minutes at a time. While technology improvements are being explored which could result in barrier down times not increasing this much, based on current rules the closure of the level crossings to road traffic would be required."
Level crossing 1
This is Churchfield Road in Acton, immediately north of Acton Central station. It's so close that the platforms go right up to the level crossing. It's so close that there are entrances on both sides. It's so close that when the gates are down, the station subway is the only way across. And the intention is to close it if the West London Orbital goes live.
I should say it's not normally closed, I just happened to turn up during a week of Thames Water works. If nothing else it proves that residents can cope locally when the road is blocked. But that doesn't mean they'd enjoy losing this on-street connection forever, especially those I saw crossing it yesterday on bikes and with pushchairs.
At the moment Acton Central is only on the Mildmay line, thus sees four trains an hour in each direction. If the West London Orbital comes into operation that total would double, which means the barriers would have to come down twice as often. That would flip the crossing from 'barriers mostly up' to 'barriers mostly down', such is the potential impact of 16 separate closures every hour. Network Rail are never keen on level crossings and would prefer to close most of them, hence the safety risks introduced by additional trains at Acton Central would be a surefire trigger to close it for good.
This is a busy spot with a gentrified shopping street on one side and Acton Park on the other. It's not a truly main road so traffic would be able to find another way, but closing the level crossing would undoubtedly force more vehicles onto Acton High Street. As for pedestrians and cyclists TfL say "the solution could involve a new pedestrian/cycle bridge or make use of the existing station subway". Squeezing a bridge in might require repurposing existing land, especially given the need for an accessibly long ramp, and would really put a damper on what's currently an easy walk down the street. As for the existing subway expensive lifts would need to be added, also it's all currently behind the gateline so the ticket barriers would need to be moved. The only people gaining here are Network Rail's risk assessors, everyone else would lose out.
Level crossings 2a and 2b
This is Bollo Lane, a short distance south of South Acton station. It's also the site of one of London's rare double level crossings, in this case just 75m apart. The track splits here with one spur heading towards Gunnersbury, the existing Mildmay line with four trains an hour. The other spur heads west towards Brentford and is currently used only by a smattering of freight trains. But if the West London Orbital were introduced it too would see a four-trains-an-hour service, and suddenly the multiplicity of barriers on Bollo Lane would be up and down all over the place. It couldn't continue.
On my visit I got to watch both crossings in action, the first only because a freight train happened to be passing by. Down came the barriers on the Kew line and we waited, and waited, because it turns out level crossing barriers come down really prematurely these days. It was precisely three minutes until the freight train finally arrived and almost four before the barriers went up again. In that time a backlog of at least two dozen vehicles had built up, also five bikes and three mopeds. The other crossing took even longer to reopen, this because Mildmay services are timetabled to pass by within a couple of minutes of each other. It thus took 2½ minutes before the first southbound train passed by, then another two minutes before the northbound train passed through, and ultimately the barriers were down for a few seconds short of five minutes.
You can imagine the traffic chaos if up to 16 closures of 3-5 minutes were required every hour on such a short section of road, also the unacceptability of traffic at one set of barriers queueing back towards the other. Thus if the West London Orbital is ever introduced at least one of the two crossings would have to close. Operationally speaking either would do, so it all comes down to not messing up the buses. Routes 70 and 440 both cross the WLO crossing, then slip into the back of the Chiswick Park business park without troubling the Mildmay crossing. The proposal is thus to close the Mildmay crossing, permanently, thereby ending all through traffic apart from the buses. Entirely counter-intuitively, introducing new trains on one line screws the level crossing on the other.
Level crossing 3
This is Wood Lane in Isleworth, three miles west of the previous pair on Bollo Lane. It's the only road across the railway between Isleworth and Syon Lane stations but that won't save it because it crosses on the flat. Also, this one's going to bugger up a bus route.
For most of the day this crossing only sees two trains an hour in each direction, i.e. four in total. But if the WLO were introduced that'd rise to six in each direction, i.e. twelve an hour, and that's been deemed less tenable. Wood Lane is thus extremely likely to face permanent closure. That would divide what's seemingly a quiet residential area, although while I was here I counted twenty pedestrians on the crossing during a three minute period so it's hardly tumbleweed country. TfL's mitigation for pedestrians and cyclists would likely be a footbridge, again squeezed in somehow, and again an absolute pain forever compared to the easy option available today.
Closing the level crossing would also permanently block the road taken by the H28 bus. This is already a ridiculously tortuous route, meandering back and forth across the Hounslow suburbs, and removing Wood Lane as an option would mean it could only get tortuouser. A diversion route already exists when the crossing is closed which involves doing Syon Lane twice, which is operationally super-sub-optimal, and if that's what the eventual consultation suggests then Wood Lane really is being stuffed over twice.
And those are the three level crossings whose days are very likely numbered if this new Overground connection goes ahead. So next time you hear how excellent the West London Orbital is going to be, yes for the vast majority of Londoners it will be, but if you have the misfortune to live near one of these severed roads you may just curse its introduction.
