Acton Town tube station

Acton Town is a London Underground station in Acton, west London, and is served by the Piccadilly and District Lines. It is the first station in an alphabetical list of London Underground and DLR stations.The station is located at the junction of Gunnersbury Lane (A4000) and Bollo Lane and is in Travelcard Zone 3.

ervices

Services from Acton are complex. The next station towards central London to the south-east is Chiswick Park but this is served by District Line trains only. Piccadilly Line trains heading towards central London serve the next-but-one station at Turnham Green at the beginning and end of the day only, and usually run non-stop to Hammersmith. To the west of Acton Town, District Line trains run to Ealing Common and Ealing Broadway and Piccadilly Line trains run to South Ealing and on to Heathrow or to Ealing Common and on to Uxbridge.

History

Acton Town station was opened as Mill Hill Park on 1 July 1879 by the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District Line) on its extension from Turnham Green to Ealing Broadway. On 1 May 1883 the MDR opened a branch from Acton Town to the defunct Hounslow Town station (now the Heathrow branch).

On 23 June 1903, the MDR's tracks north of Acton Town to a new station at Park Royal & Twyford Abbey became the first section of the Underground's surface lines to be electrified and operate electric instead of steam trains. The deep level tube lines open at that time (City & South London Railway, Waterloo & City Railway and Central London Railway) had been electrically powered from the start. Services on the Hounslow branch and to central London were electrified on 13 June 1905 and 1 July 1905 respectively.

Also on the 13 June 1905 passenger services on a short branch line to South Acton was opened. This branch had originally had services running to Hounslow West and Uxbridge but this service was later reduced to a shuttle between Acton Town and South Acton.

In 1910 the station building was reconstructed and on 1 March 1910 the station was given its present name.

Between 1931 and 1932 the station was again rebuilt, this time in preparation for the handover of the Uxbridge branch from the District Line to the Piccadilly Line. The new station was designed by Charles Holden in a modern European style using brick, reinforced concrete and glass. Like the stations at Sudbury Town and Sudbury Hill to the north and others that Holden designed elsewhere for the east and west Piccadilly Line extensions such as Oakwood, Acton Town station features a tall block-like ticket hall rising above a low horizontal structure that contains station offices and shops. The brick walls of the ticket hall are punctuated with panels of clerestory windows and the structure is capped with a flat concrete slab roof. Reinforced concrete platform canopies were constructed to replace the original timber canopies. A short fifth platform for the single car train operating on the South Acton branch was provided to the north of the eastbound island platform.

On 4 July 1932 the Piccadilly Line was extended to run west of its original terminus at Hammersmith sharing the route with the District Line to Ealing Common. From Ealing Common to South Harrow, the District Line was replaced by the Piccadilly Line and, from this date, District Line trains from Acton Town ran either to Hounslow West or Ealing Broadway only. Piccadilly Line trains began serving stations on the Hounslow branch on 9 January 1933, sharing operations with the District Line. Initially services were extended to Northfields before operating to Hounslow West from 13 March 1933. Piccadilly Line trains did not, however, start calling at South Ealing until 1935.

The South Acton branch line was closed on 28 February 1959 due to low passenger usage. The fifth platform at Acton Town has been removed and little of the branch line remains except a bridge abutment on the south side of Bollo Lane where the tracks crossed the road.

District Line services on the Hounslow branch were withdrawn from 10 October 1964 after which operations were provided by the Piccadilly Line alone.

To the north of the station is the District Line's Ealing Common Depot and to the south of the station, served by a siding branching away just south of the west bound platform, is Acton Depot where London's Transport Museum houses its reserve collection of rail and road vehicles. The Museum Depot is opened to the public on a number of weekends throughout the year.

Gallery

ee also

*List of London Underground stations

References

*cite book|author=R.V.J.Butt, |title= The Directory of Railway Stations |publisher=Patrick Stephens Ltd |year=1995 ISBN 1 85260 508 1
*cite book|author=A. Jowett, |title= Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas |publisher=Atlantic Publishing |year=2000 ISBN 0 906899 99 0

External links

* [http://photos.ltmcollection.org London Transport Museum Photographic Archive]
** ltmcollection|53/9860553.jpg|Mill Hill Park station, circa 1908
** ltmcollection|45/9860545.jpg|Acton Town station, 1916
** ltmcollection|31/9867531.jpg|Ticket hall, 1924
** ltmcollection|81/i0000k81.jpg|New station under construction, 1931
** ltmcollection|13/995713.jpg|Interior of ticket hall, 1933
** ltmcollection|34/9860534.jpg|New station, main entrance, 1934
** ltmcollection|gh/i00005gh.jpg|Fifth platform with South Acton shuttle, 1958