HS2’s Old Oak Common station gets formal start

Published on 23rd June 2021 by ianVisits in Transport News

HS2’s huge hub station at Old Oak Common has received formal approval for the permanent construction work to start.

When completed, it will link HS2 with the Elizabeth line and GWR services and planned nearby London Overground stations. It also includes a future option for a link with the Chiltern Railways.

The site, not far from Willesden Junction, has been seeing construction work for some years preparing it for construction, but there’s always been a vanishingly tiny chance that it wouldn’t be built. Now that formal approval has been granted, the permanent construction work on the station can start.

Schematic (c) HS2

Work will now start with the construction of a 1.8km long underground diaphragm wall around what will become the station’s ‘underground box’, where six HS2 platforms will sit to accommodate trains serving the Midlands and the North. Pilling rigs will also install 160 reinforced concrete columns inside the wall to help form the box and support the structure.

The subterranean box will house six HS2 platforms.

Following the first phase of construction to create the underground box, work on the eight surface platforms for the Elizabeth line and GWR will begin. Over 1,600 concrete piles will be installed into the ground on which the station superstructure and overground platforms will sit.

A sweeping arched roof will then link all the platforms.

New concourse (c) HS2

When it opens, it’s expected that more than 90 million passengers per year using the station, which means the HS2 railway station will have more passengers than (pre-pandemic) Heathrow Airport.

Tagged with HS2 Railway, Old Oak Common

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5 Comments on “HS2’s Old Oak Common station gets formal start”

  1. Could also connect to southwestern services via Heathrow Southern Access if or when that gets built.

  2. With four platforms for Crossrail/ Elizabeth Line it suggests it’s being built with provisions for extension of Elizabeth Line whether that be north west or south west only time will tell but with deferred Crossrail 2 then extension south west could replace sections of Crossrail 2 !

    No mention of funding for new Overground Stations or upgrade to nearby Willesden Junction Station with reinstated platforms on west London line .

    • They are building on what used to be sidings and and maintenance yards not on the common itself