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London is a city so reliant and connected by trains that it’s hard to believe that the capital hasn’t had a new mainline station in ten whole years. But that was very much the case – until yesterday.
That’s because on Sunday December 10, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joined hundreds of local residents and rail enthusiasts to celebrate the opening of Brent Cross West station in northwest London.
The project, which cost around £419 million to complete, was brought forward from its original 2030 date to ensure it’d be complete before thousands move into new homes in the area.
Thameslink services will run directly to both Luton Airport Parkway and Farringdon, creating new connections with the Elizabeth line. The journey into central London takes as little as 12 minutes, and six trains run every hour (apart from on Sundays), with up to eight being scheduled during peak times.
And it’s not just the station itself that’s new. Hundreds of metres of tracks were reworked, and a public bridge was built, providing the first pedestrian access to this part of the Midland Main Line since it was first opened in the nineteenth century.
New tracks and an bridge? It’s exciting stuff. But seriously, it’s not just improved connectivity to central London that this new station has helped to achieve.
According to Sadiq Khan, ‘what this station does [is make] the possibility of the West London Orbital more likely… if we get the capital funding from the government next year and subsequent years.’ The London Orbital is a proposed extension to the Overground that would extend routes from West Hampstead and Hendon westwards towards Hounslow.
During the launch, the Mayor stepped off a service from St Pancras and was met with crowds cheering ‘hip hip hooray, Brent Cross West!’ according to the Standard. There were family activities and music, and even a recorded message from DJ Tony Blackburn.
But the opening of Brent Cross West is just one milestone part of what has been described as the ‘most ambitious redevelopment programme in Europe’, and the biggest ever undertaken by Barnet Council.
You can read more about services and the brand new station on the Thameslink website here.
For more information on transport and travel across the capital, keep an eye on our post about all the train strikes happening this month.
Did you see that the Thames could be getting a new cross-river ferry?
Plus: London’s black cabs will be massively hiking fares this Christmas.
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