With the whole government fiasco with HS2 into Euston, it looks like Old Oak Common is going to be the terminus of HS2 in London for the foreseeable future.  This fate is not dissimilar to that of Paddington Railway Station when it was built by Brunel over 150 years ago. It has been intended to being built further into London but was pushed out to the Paddington site when it was certainly not considered part of Central London.  As it needed to be connected with Central London, the tube link was built between Paddington and Farringdon, and the rest is history so to speak!  In the case of Old Oak Common, it will of course already have the Elizabeth Line passing through to take passengers into the Centre of London. And will no doubt over time, be considered part of Central London, as Londoners and visitors get use to its location. Just we did with Paddington Railway Station. So in some ways Old Oak Common should be considered the new Paddington. 

There are also some capacity issues with both the rail and roads into Old Oak Common. The rail capacity for Old Oak Common for HS2 will have only be six platforms without grade separation on the approach. Realistically this will limit the capacity of the route to six trains an hour – possible eight – although if we were able to emulate Japanese standards of operation we could do better.  The Tokaido Shinkansen operates up to 12 trains an hour into and out of Tokyo Central station with six platforms.

And finally the sub-surface connections that is the roads, will have to be improved for cars and buses to Old Oak Common and l trust Transport of London will be doing this Hammersmith & Fulham Council for this part of W12.