The Time Out London blog team

With Heathrow Airport currently working on a gargantuan £49 billion expansion over the course of the next decade, there will be millions more people needed to use public transport to get to and from London’s busiest airport. The aviation titan reckons that once its new runway is open, an extra 66 million travellers could go through the airport every year. And it’ll need more transport routes to help it handle that huge boost in footfall.   That’s what the Heathrow Southern Rail (HSR) scheme hopes to do. Right now, the airport isn’t directly connected by rail to Surrey, Hampshire or south and southwest London. The proposed route would rectify that. And it’s just been given crucial backing from a local council, provided certain conditions are met.  HSR would start at Heathrow Terminal 5. It would make use of existing railway infrastructure and require eight miles of new railway line to be built, connecting Heathrow to London Waterloo via Clapham Junction, Putney, Hounslow, Twickenham, Richmond, Staines and other intermediate stations.  Spelthorne Borough Council has said that it will give its backing to the project on the condition that there’s a 100 percent guarantee that trains will stop in Staines, and that there will be no damage to Staines Moor, a local country park and designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. Photograph: Matthew Ashmore / Shutterstock.com The council says that independent studies must prove that work won’t damage Staines Moor or increase flood...

Have you ever been on the Waterloo and City line? The turquoise tube service has a fairly niche purpose, ferrying passengers between just two stops: (as the name suggests) Waterloo and Bank station in the City of London. It’s mostly used by Square Mile commuters from southwest London. ‘The Drain’, as it’s affectionately known, is made even more niche by the fact that it hasn’t been open on the weekend since 2020. In the pandemic the line was suspended, but when the Waterloo and City reopened in June 2021 it only did so on weekdays. While it previously operated on Saturdays, for the last six years it’s been closed all weekend. But that could all be about to change. According to a Local Democracy Reporting Service story in MyLondon, the Waterloo and City could soon restart its Saturday services. The City of London Corporation has apparently written to the Mayor's Office and Transport for London (TfL) to make a case for a Saturday W&C service. The turquoise line’s weekend reopening would initially be just a trial. Photograph: David Cold Weather / Shutterstock.com By total number of users the W&C is the least-busy London Underground line. However, if you measure its busyness by passengers-per-kilometre, it’s actually among the most packed lines. So, if ‘The Drain’ is mostly a commuter route, why reopen it on Saturdays? Well, it’s all part of a plan by the City of London Corporation to boost weekend visitors in the Square Mile. The Corp wants to increase footfall on Fridays,...

The West London Orbital (WLO) has been in the works for the past nine years. It would be the seventh line on the Overground network and, as the name suggests, connect areas across the west of the city. Almost a decade since plans were first drawn up, the WLO is still in the very early stages and is yet to get the official thumbs up. But it does have the backing of Sadiq Khan and leaders in each of the boroughs it would serve. Now, it’s another step closer to becoming reality.  TfL, the Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation (OPCD) and the boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Hounslow have all agreed to contribute a total of £6.65m in funding for the line (£400,000 of which will come from the Mayor of London’s budget).  The orbital would run up to six trains an hour, serving the likes of Brent Cross, Neasden, Harlesden, Old Oak Common, Acton, Brentford and Hounslow. It would be built on a freight rail line that hasn’t carried passengers since 1902 and requires new stations in a few locations, including one at Lionel Road (near Gunnersbury Park) and another at Old Oak Common Lane. There’ll be public consultation on those stations later this year. It would also serve existing stations like Acton Central and Brent Cross West.  Map: Transport for London The funding will go towards preparing designs and proposals for a public consultation this year. TfL, the boroughs and OPCD will finalise their preferred options for stations, junctions, signalling and power; model how the...