please empty your brain below
Crossrail question: shifting these services underground frees up a huge chunk of platform capacity at both Liverpool Street and Paddington. What are they going to do with it?

Dan | 06.11.22 - 7:32 a.m. | #

If you do visit little old Hanwell please consider bringing a book for the community book swap inside the station waiting room.

Matthew | 06.11.22 - 7:44 a.m. | #

Not been to Ealing for obviously a long time because the stations at Ealing Broadway and West Ealing especially are completely unrecognisable. Also these huge new tower blocks are blighting London in all parts of the capital.

Dave B | 06.11.22 - 7:54 a.m. | #

"the erupting hellscape that is North Acton."
I lived there, a stone's thrown from the A40, from 2000-3 when it was still almost all warehouses - my housemate had a job in one belonging to a charity, sorting donated clothes. Just about every single building has been replaced now with utterly bland high-rises and towers. The only survivor I can see on Streetview (08/21) is the 3 small shops w/flats above next to The Castle pub (RIP) by the tube but they can't have long to go, assuming they're not already.

I then moved to West Ealing for 3 years, 2 minutes from that station, and loved it. Except for the area immediately around Waitrose that seems to have largely escaped gentrification - so far.

Graham | 06.11.22 - 8:00 a.m. | #

If you look on Google maps, several of these stations are within easy reach of the Grand Union Canal, which I am sure you have blogged about previously.

Obviously | 06.11.22 - 8:18 a.m. | #

Now there are finally through trains it'll be interesting to see how travel patterns change, if you live between the District Line and Crossrail in East London, Crossrail is now a more attractive option, it's even worth getting off the bus at Maryland now.

I won't miss Paddington, going there is OK, but coming back there is always the feeling that whilst waiting for a sub-surface train at one set of platforms it would have been quicker to wait at the other set and the mainline trains at Paddington stopped being interesting some years ago.

Still Anon | 06.11.22 - 8:30 a.m. | #

I’ve just caught the train from East London to one of these seven stations, and it is grey, very wet and thoroughly miserable and I cannot currently recommend a visit.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 06.11.22 - 8:36 a.m. | #

Appetite properly whetted!

Philip Downer | 06.11.22 - 9:05 a.m. | #

Definitely worth a trip to Hanwell just for the station and do avoid H&H. They were demolishing the old station entrance when I was there on 1st February

daveid76 | 06.11.22 - 9:25 a.m. | #

Glad you gave Shanakee a mention, they serve one of the best pints of Guinness to be had in London.

tops | 06.11.22 - 9:27 a.m. | #

Re: West Ealing. The Ealing Farmer's Market is on Saturdays - not Sundays - and for such a small market is exceptionally good.

dg writes: switched, thanks.

RangerNigel | 06.11.22 - 9:36 a.m. | #

There's a record shop, mainly dealing in 40's, 50's and 60's about 15 mins from Ealing Broadway station, been there a few times, the nearest station is actually South Ealing but it's a nice little shop.

Christopher Gill | 06.11.22 - 9:53 a.m. | #

Not the most enticing array - perhaps all could be redeemed if Mark Steel were to do a series of In Town

NickW | 06.11.22 - 9:57 a.m. | #

Appetite (and curiousity) entirely sated.

Frank F | 06.11.22 - 9:59 a.m. | #

Hanwell is definitely worth a visit, I first went there when doing the Capital Ring walk.
Apart from Wharncliffe Viaduct, Brunel's Three Bridges isn't too far away either along the Grand Union Canal.

Mikey C | 06.11.22 - 10:14 a.m. | #

I notice from the photos that some stations have a purple roundel but apparently no national rail logo. Does this mean they are no longer served by any NR services?

Kev | 06.11.22 - 10:33 a.m. | #

They'll probably be planning a Charles line before I find the need to take the Liz Line!
I could take a long bus to Hayes & Harlington to the Purple line of a short bus ride for the Met/Jubilee.
No contest - even if I wanted to go to Abbey Wood!

Cornish Cockney | 06.11.22 - 10:44 a.m. | #

There is still a half-hourly service to Didcot calling at Ealing Broadway, Hayes and West Drayton. Southall has a few trains calling mostly very early or late. West Ealing has the Greenford shuttle, which leaves Acton Main Line and Hanwell as the only 100% Elizabeth Line stations.

greatkingrat | 06.11.22 - 10:51 a.m. | #

Re. West Ealing and the Drayton Court Hotel. A random factoid is that Ho Chi Minh worked at the former hotel in 1914, before becoming working his way up to the top in Vietnam in later yeara.

Frank Funster | 06.11.22 - 11:02 a.m. | #

Hanwell also has an early Gilbert Scott church not ten minutes walk away.

HoosierSands | Homepage | 06.11.22 - 11:03 a.m. | #

I'm trying to think which fables the requisite areas of West London might equate to! As to the sparse futuristic boxes, I do wonder what condition they might be in some thirty years into the future.

Now, Hanwell - my main stamping ground and destination in that segment of the Capital, some 40 years ago - Glad the station is now getting due recognition, and that its historic character is being appropriately upheld.

cau1khead | 06.11.22 - 11:16 a.m. | #

Jim Marshall would have sold his first Marshall guitar amp in 1962.

Here's the plaque.

dg writes: updated, thanks.

Gunnersaurus | 06.11.22 - 1:04 p.m. | #

cau1khead... Come and have a look at Bermondsey, my local station aged 22 years. Great architecturally but darker and more gloomy than it needs to be mainly because of a regime of poor cleaning of the glass roof and interior walls. It seems that so many modern buildings finished with non-traditional materials quickly begin to look shabby if they aren't maintained properly.

Richard Thompson | 06.11.22 - 1:44 p.m. | #

I'd like to defend Iver station (actually in Richings Park, the village of Iver being about a mile away), worth the trip for the contrast of suburban calm when you step outside compared to all the stations within Greater London. It's also a good starting or ending point for country walks.

Andrew S | 06.11.22 - 1:46 p.m. | #

It's great that the 'full service' is now open to and from our neck of the woods. For all their sparse futuristic boxiness, these new stations are a huge improvement on the neglected shediness of many of their predecessors.

Developers will be pleased, as they've been plugging 'handy for Crossrail' for years, as they built more and more super-tall blocks in North Acton, thought to be 'near' Acton Main Line, and soon to be towering over West Ealing. New residents might be disappointed that the promise of 'frequent services to Heathrow, the West End and the City' has ended up being at rather underwhelming 15 minute intervals.

ActonMan | 06.11.22 - 2:20 p.m. | #

According to the timetables, a selection of peak hour services depart from Liverpool Street mainline station and first thing on a Sunday. Yet this afternoon I saw an Elizabeth line train leave Stratford for the mainline terminus in and a return journey was advertised on the concourse destination board at Liverpool Street. Were there operational issues on day one which caused them to bring in contingency measures?

winklepicker | 06.11.22 - 4:02 p.m. | #

From the NR app, the 14:14 from Gidea Park was diverted to LST high level, leaving Stratford 10 mins late, due to "delay to the previous train". Around that time several trains seemed to be be losing 5 or so minutes at Stratford and Bond Street. Maybe slight handover issues.

Strabismus | 06.11.22 - 4:22 p.m. | #

West Drayton: Granny Satchwills Bakery And Sandwich Shop. Has been shut for years. Used for storage now (just the shio sign still there).

The Green and Southlands Art Centre are both close by and IMO worth a visit.

Colin | 06.11.22 - 4:28 p.m. | #

Uncle Ho Chi Min used to be a pastry chef at the Drayton Park Hotel.

Tim | 06.11.22 - 4:29 p.m. | #

The losers café from the Apprentice, La Cabaña, is in an industrial estate and not accessible at the weekends, just in case you were thinking of going.

Helen | 06.11.22 - 5:43 p.m. | #

Looking forward to next May when the Didcot Parkway service becomes fast from Slough and starts whooshing us gin'n-jag belters majestically past all these stops (currently stops at four of them). Might even make the evening sprint for a seat at Paddington marginally less grim.

jpmac | 06.11.22 - 6:58 p.m. | #

Thanks for the info Strabismus. I guess having the option of Liverpool Street and Paddington mainline diverts is better than the whole network falling apart.

winklepicker | 06.11.22 - 8:42 p.m. | #

When I worked in Hayes (some distance from Harlington) in the 1960's the next station out was called West Drayton and Yiewsley.

Roger S | 06.11.22 - 9:28 p.m. | #

got on a westbound train at Stratford this evening, only to be told after getting held at a red signal that due to issues with communicating with the underground signals that we were being rerouted onto Liverpool Street high level!

Matthieu | 06.11.22 - 11:43 p.m. | #

Would love to see one of these covering the Bucks/Berks section out to Reading.

Ian C | 07.11.22 - 11:29 a.m. | #

Kev: like the Overground, the new line is an NR service, just as GWR is - though TfL doesn't seem that keen on making this known.

Betterbee | 08.11.22 - 12:46 a.m. | #











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