Old Oak Common Station

The Balfour Beatty VINCI SYSTRA HS2 joint venture announced its formal contract award for the management of the construction and delivery of HS2’s Old Oak Common station, in North West London, in September 2019. The joint venture will be responsible for the final design, construction and commissioning of Old Oak Common station, delivering 6 underground platforms and 8 platforms on the adjacent Great Western Main Line. Once completed, HS2’s new Old Oak Common station will become the UK’s best-connected rail station, providing direct services to three major airports and eight of Britain’s ten largest cities.

Background

HS2 is building sustainable, climate-resilient transport infrastructure and will cut carbon emissions from the UK transport sector. As a new railway line, HS2 will reduce the pressure on the existing rail network and add extra capacity by placing long distance services on their own pair of tracks. HS2 trains will serve over 25 stations, from Scotland to the South East; they include eight of Britain’s ten largest cities.
Old Oak Common will provide an interchange between HS2 and the new Elizabeth Line to central London, Heathrow Airport, Slough and Reading, Heathrow Express and Great Western Railway services. An estimated 250,000 passengers a day will use the new station making it one of the busiest in Britain.

Technical overview

The station will have 14 platforms. Six 450m HS2 platforms will be built in an 850m long underground box, with twin tunnels taking high speed trains east to the Southern terminus at Euston and west to the outskirts of London. Material excavated during work on the tunnels will be removed by rail from the nearby former Willesden Euroterminal depot. There will be an integrated connection to the adjoining conventional station at ground level via a stylish shared overbridge. A light and airy concourse will link both halves of the station, unified by a vast roof inspired by the site’s industrial heritage.
The longest escalators on the HS2 network will be at Old Oak Common. They which will take passengers 13.5m up from the subsurface platforms to concourse level. In total, the new station will boast more than 50 lifts and escalators.

Impact

At peak of construction, the project will employ a direct management team of 140 and a wider workforce of approximately 2,500. Construction of the station will support up to 65,000 jobs and 25,000 homes in the local area, helping kick-start one of Britain’s largest regeneration projects and transforming the former railway and industrial area.
To the west of the station, above the HS2 platforms, there will be a new public park, a green space which will welcome visitors to Old Oak Common and provide a new focal point for the growing community.
Along with improving the local area, Old Oak Common station will also help ease congestion and over-crowding on existing rail lines, therefore dramatically increasing rail capacity across the UK.

Project participants

Client:
High Speed 2 ltd

Key figures

Execution dates:
from September 2019 to September 2027

Six 450m underground HS2 platforms

14 platforms in total

2,500 workforce at construction peak

Find out more

Old Oak Common | High Speed 2 (hs2.org.uk)