New attempt made to bring Crossrail to area
New route from Hounslow to Paddington proposed
A new proposal to bring Crossrail to Acton, Brentford, Syon Lane, Isleworth and Hounslow has been put forward by Hounslow Council in a bid to ensure local residents share the benefits of improved east-west rail links.
The Council is lobbying to extend the planned Crossrail network into the borough via a new route that would see trains running to Paddington every 15 minutes.
The proposal is based on a detailed study of engineering and timetabling and the new route (known as �Corridor 7�) would make use of existing train lines running through Old Oak Common and Acton.
Submitted to the Government, the new proposal follows the scrapping of plans for a Crossrail branch into Turnham Green (in Hounslow borough), Gunnersbury, Richmond and Kingston (known as �Corridor 6�). Although this spur of the project offered the most attractive cost-benefit of any section of the scheme, strong local opposition was cited as a reason for not proceeding.
Crossrail will provide fast, state-of-the-art train services between Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west and Shenfield and Ebbsfleet in the east, connected by tunnels under central London. Under current plans, however, more than half the trains running under central London would come no further west than Paddington.
Hounslow's head of transport, Chris Calvi-Freeman, said research by Chiswick-based transport consultant Richard Jennings had established that four trains an hour could be extended from Paddington to Hounslow and integrated with existing South West Trains, Silverlink and freight services.
Although significant engineering work would be required, this would not involve tunnelling or the taking of private property and would incur only a fraction of the cost of the abandoned Corridor 6.
�For local people, it would mean fast and comfortable links into central London and beyond,� Mr Calvi-Freeman said.
15 Nov 2004