Report to Scrutiny
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Report to Scrutiny Item Number: Contains Confidential or No Exempt Information Subject of Report: Overview of Rail Connectivity in the Borough Scrutiny Review Panel 2 – 2016/2017: Transport Meeting: 14 th September 2016 Russell Roberts Service Report Author: Principal Transport Planner Email: [email protected] Tel: 020-8825 9430 Harjeet Bains Scrutiny Officer: Scrutiny Review Officer Email: [email protected] Tel: 020-8825 7120 Councillor Bassam Mahfouz Cabinet Responsibility: (Transport, Environment and Leisure) Lucy Taylor, Director, Regeneration and Planning Director Responsibility: Email:[email protected] Tel: 020-8825 9036 To consider the effectiveness of rail connectivity (e.g. night Tube, Overground, Heathrow Connect, First Great Brief: Western, TfL, Chiltern Railways, Gatwick connections, Greenford Spur, etc.) in the borough and make recommendations for further improvements accordingly. The Panel is recommended to: - consider and comment on the information provided on Recommendations: rail connectivity in the borough; - identify areas for further review at future meetings; and - make suggestions for further improvements where necessary. Page 1 of 15 1. Background 1.1 Ealing has quite an extensive rail and Underground (Tube) network predominately arranged on a radial basis to and from central London. The Central, District and Piccadilly lines as well as the Heathrow Express, Heathrow Connect, Great Western Railway, Chiltern and London Overground all serve stations within the borough. However, whilst there are strong east-west, radial connections, there are limitations on north-south, orbital connections to other parts of west London to and from Ealing. The network coverage is best in the east and central of the borough with most of these areas being within a 12 minute walk (960 metres) of at least one station. However, in the west the rail and Tube networks do not provide good coverage (see map 1). 1.2 Rail and Tube journeys account for 10% of trips starting in Ealing, and are split 2% and 8% of trips respectively. Table 1 below shows Ealing’s modal split compared to the west and outer London borough averages. Table 1 – Rail/Tube Mode Share Comparison Borough Rail Tube Ealing 2% 8% west London 2% 8% outer London 4% 4% 1.3 In terms of actual numbers of journeys, there are 49,280 daily Tube trips and 12,320 daily rail trips per day out of an all modes total 616,000 trips per day originating in Ealing. 1.4 Due to the very high costs associated with new rail/ Tube stations and extensions for in order to justify any changes to these networks, there needs to be significant levels of either new or existing development to satisfy the challenging business case requirements. Railway proposals will be compared to proposals in other areas in terms of benefits and disbenefits. Any new rail infrastructure is also likely to require taking land from existing buildings and/or green space. Whilst tunnelling may be a method of reducing impacts on surface uses, the costs are extremely high with planning and construction taking several years to complete (see Crossrail and High Speed 2 examples). 1.5 In recent years therefore, Ealing officers have focussed on improving the reliability and frequency of services on the existing networks. For example, officers helped to negotiate four trains per hour through Hanwell Station as part of the Crossrail plans. As train paths (capacity) get filled up, future enhancements could be investigated in terms of lengthening trains to provide more seats. This approach has been used on London Overground (North London Line). However, stations may need to be modified to accommodate longer trains, particularly where platforms require lengthening. 1.6 Ealing is set to benefit from two new railways with enhanced stations currently being designed to serve the borough, Crossrail and High Speed 2. There are also proposals for possible future rail links between Southall and Brentford plus Hounslow to Old Oak Common via Acton. Page 2 of 15 2. Crossrail Services 2.1 Crossrail will take over both GWR local services and Heathrow Connect into London Paddington in May 2018 (see map 2). From January 2019 Crossrail will extend current train paths through a central London tunnel to provide direct services across London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in to the east with intermediate stops underground including Bond Street and Canary Wharf. The total cost of this project is £14,800,000,000. 2.2 The introduction of Crossrail services in January 2019 is expected to bring significant accessibility benefits to the five Crossrail stations in the borough. All of the stations (Acton Mainline, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Hanwell and Southall) will be step- free and the enhanced service pattern (up to ten trains per hour) alongside significantly improved journey times into London will raise the PTALS in many parts of the borough. For example, the journey time from Southall to the West End will drop down to 19 minutes with no change required. 2.3 Crossrail is predicted to generate significant increases in passenger numbers for the stations it serves. For example, at Ealing Broadway there will be 21,150,000 passengers by 2026 a 25.9% increase on 2015 levels (see appendix 1), this and further future increases have been accounted for with a capacity of 27,000,000 passengers per year. 2.4 The Council has also secured £7,300,000 from TfL to invest in the areas around each of the five stations through Crossrail Complementary Measures (CCM) funding. This will see improvements to public realm and wider public transport connectivity through revisions to bus infrastructure and more integrated station frontages. 3. High Speed 2 railway 3.1 The government is promoting the High Speed 2 (HS2) railway to provide a new link between London and Birmingham (phase one) with extensions also proposed to Leeds and Manchester (phase two). The total cost of HS2 phase 1 is estimated at £42,600,000,000. 3.2 Within LB Ealing HS2 would be in a tunnel from East Acton to the boundary with Hillingdon at Northolt broadly following the alignment of the Central line, West Ruislip branch (see map 2). A new station in Hammersmith and Fulham is proposed on the current site of the Old Oak Common railway depot (immediately to the east of the borough boundary at Old Oak Lane). Officers are working with schemes promoters HS2 Ltd, to minimise the impacts of construction and operation on local residents and businesses. A Hybrid Bill to attain consent for this scheme will be going to the House of Lords this Autumn. Construction is due to begin in 2017 and last until completion of phase one in 2026 and 2033 for phase two. 4. Other Future Rail infrastructure 4.1 Two new railway projects with alignments through LB Ealing are being promoted by Hounslow Council. An officer from Hounslow will attend the meeting to provide further details. 4.2 The first is a proposal to introduce passenger rail services on the freight railway line Page 3 of 15 between Southall and Brentford (circled on Map 1). This project would require track and signalling works to provide a three train an hour ‘shuttle’ service from Southall station (and Crossrail services) to the development area beside the A4 Great West Road. The estimated cost of this project is over £40,000,000. 4.3 The second proposal is to provide passenger rail services between Hounslow to Old Oak Common using the ‘Kew curve’ alignment currently used by freight trains to provide a link between the ‘Hounslow Loop’ railway line (including Brentford) to the NLL to connect with Crossrail and HS2 (see map 2). This proposal would provide additional services to South Acton and Acton Central, however, the level crossings adjacent to these two stations would also be affected. The estimated cost of this project is around £20,000,000. 4.4 TfL is currently planning and designing a second new railway in tunnels across London, Crossrail 2. This will link south west London to north east London via central London with stations at Victoria and Tottenham Court Road and could be operational by 2030. This ‘Metro’ route is expected to cost £27,000,000,000 in total. Whilst a longer, ‘Regional’ option running from Cheshunt in Hertfordshire to Epsom in Surrey, passing through central London via stations and is estimated to cost £32,000,000,000. Page 4 of 15 5. Tube Services 5.1 Ealing is served by three Tube lines, the Central, District and Piccadilly services (see map 1). 5.2 The Central line consists of two branches within LB Ealing, the Ealing Broadway and West Ruislip branches which are joined at a junction to the west of North Acton station. The Ealing Broadway branch includes West Acton and, at its terminus, Ealing Broadway, stations. The West Ruislip branch includes Hanger Lane, Perivale, Greenford and Northolt stations within LB Ealing. The Central lines connects Ealing to central and east London and other significant stations on this route include Shepherds Bush, Oxford Circus, Bank and Stratford. 5.3 The District line consists of the Ealing Broadway branch only within LB Ealing and serves Chiswick Park, Acton Town, Ealing Common and Ealing Broadway. The District Line connects Ealing to south west London (Richmond and Wimbledon), central London (including direct trains to Gatwick Airport from Victoria Station) plus east London. New rolling stock offering more space and walk-through carriages have been introduced on the District line within the last two years. This will be followed by a signaling upgrade soon as part of TfL’s Four Lines Modernisation programme. When these improvements are complete by 2023, the capacity of the District line will increase by 24%, which means it will be able to carry about 10,000 more passengers an hour.