Mayor outlines West London Orbital and Tube upgrades
Written as part of an NCTJ course visit to City Hall.
After making arrangements to interview assembly member Gareth Roberts, I successfully pitched this piece to Simon Murfitt at Newsquest.
Rail projects like the West London Orbital will improve transport links in Southwest London, Sadiq Khan told the London Assembly.
He was responding to Liberal Democrat assembly member Gareth Roberts at a City Hall meeting on October 15, after he was asked what Overground and Tube improvements were coming to Hounslow, Kingston and Richmond.
The Mayor said the Orbital would reduce key journey times by more than half an hour, while also allowing faster journeys to Heathrow and Central London through the Elizabeth Line.
The West London Orbital is a planned rail project, connecting Hendon in the north of London with Hounslow in the south.
It will use existing, underused rail lines, and once complete will form part of the London Overground network.
But Mr Roberts was not satisfied, telling the Assembly: “I rarely use the word literally, but on this time I will. It literally does not go far enough. Just two more stops, and it could join to Twickenham.”
Lord Khan also cited track renewal programmes, improvements to signalling, and new trains for the Piccadilly Line as coming improvements.
He told the assembly: “Each new train will provide 10 per cent more capacity, and a smoother ride for customers.
The increase in fleet size could allow frequency to increase from 24 to 27 trains per hour in future, and the programme overall will mean a 23 per cent increase in peak capacity into central London compared to current service.”
Later, Mr Roberts said extending the line to Twickenham would allow people from Teddington, Norbiton, Raynes Park, New Malden, Wimbledon and Hampton Wick to travel into north London with just one train change.
He said: “At the moment they’ve got to go into Central London, they’ve got to go to Clapham, they’ve got to mess around, they’ve got to do all sorts of things.
This would be a single interchange which would open up north west London for hundreds of thousands of residents in the south west.”
Mr Roberts also said that while improvements to existing infrastructure were welcome, they didn’t offer anything new to residents.
He added: “People can talk about upgrades to signalling and drainage solutions and all of that, but what people want to see is additional services.
They want to see new trains, they want to see new routes, they want to be able to choose public transport as the option rather than having to go everywhere by car.”