Kensington Olympia station

London stations
name = Kensington Olympia


manager = London Overground
zone = 2
locale = Olympia, London
borough = Kensington & Chelsea
start= 1864
platforms = 3
railexits0405 = 1.159
railexits0506 = 1.244
railexits0607 = 1.392
tubeexits05=0.799
railcode=KPA
tubeexits07=0.952

Kensington Olympia station is a National Rail and London Underground station in West London. On the Underground network it is the terminus of a short branch of the District Line from Earl's Court, although built as part of the Outer Circle; on the main-line railway it is on the West London Line between Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction, used by many trains to bypass Central London. The station was first named Kensington; in 1868 it was renamed Addison Road, as central Kensington then got its own station, High Street Kensington; in 1947 it was renamed Kensington (Olympia).

As the railway forms the boundary between two London Boroughs, the southbound platform lies in Kensington and Chelsea while the northbound and London Underground platforms are in Hammersmith and Fulham. The station appears on London Underground maps as "Kensington (Olympia)" although it is referred to on National Rail maps and timetables, and the London Overground-maintained station signage as "Kensington Olympia".

London Overground now manage Kensington Olympia station, which has resulted in improved signage. They also removed all the seating on the platforms. New seating has been provided but there are now fewer seats and many of them do not have support for the back and are more like benches.

ervices

National Rail

National Rail services are provided by London Overground (who manage the station), Southern and CrossCountry. The London Overground service operates between Willesden Junction to the north and Clapham Junction to the south, typically every 30 minutes every day of the week. There are additional peak-period services which continue beyond Willesden Junction to Stratford via the North London Line. Southern operate between Watford Junction and Brighton, via Gatwick Airport, typically once an hour.

CrossCountry operate either two or three trains per day between Brighton and Birmingham New Street, with some trains operating beyond Birmingham to or from Manchester Piccadilly. This service is to cease from December 2008, after the bidders for the CrossCountry franchise were offered the option of removing the route from network. [cite news
title = More trains pledged in shake-up
work = BBC News
publisher = bbc.co.uk
date = 2006-06-08
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5059776.stm
accessdate = 2008-08-09
quote = The Cross Country franchise, currently operated by Virgin Trains, will no longer include the Reading to Brighton service via Gatwick Airport.] [cite web
title = Frequently Asked Questions
publisher = CrossCountry
url = http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/AboutCrossCountry/FAQs2.aspx#FAQ10
accessdate = 2008-08-09
quote = The changes in December 2008 will see the end of direct CrossCountry services to Brighton and intermediate stations (Kensington Olympia, East Croydon, Redhill, Gatwick Airport and Haywards Heath). Operating to these locations was not a requirement for this franchise after that date and we have not been able to make a commercial case for continuing these services beyond then.]

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Former Services

London Underground

District Line trains serve this station on a short shuttle service from High Street Kensington via Earl's Court (the driver walks to the other end of the train, waits a few minutes, then drives back to Earl's Court). There is one late evening train per day which runs Kensington Olympia, direct to Upminster (indicated in italics below). This station is in London Underground Zone 2. The service operates three or four times per hour, to an irregular pattern.

On weekdays, the first tube train leaves the station at 07:18 and then they run roughly three or four times an hour as follows;

Description

This station is relatively quiet compared to its busy past, although for many years the passenger service was limited to peak-hour main-line trains each way to and from Clapham Junction, and Underground trains during exhibition times only. A large number of freight trains pass through the station, as the West London Line is the main freight route from north of London to the south-east of England and the Channel Tunnel.

Prior to the transfer of Eurostar services to St Pancras International in November 2007, Eurostar trains passed through on their way from Waterloo International to North Pole depot. In the more distant past, Motorail services operated by British Rail used to terminate here, allowing passengers to convey their cars between London and many parts of the country.

The link to the Great Western Main Line (at North Pole Junction, 3 miles to the north), avoiding Paddington station, the western central London terminus, meant that the station was to play an important role in the Cold War should a nuclear exchange have seemed likely. The station was part of the secret plans to evacuate large numbers of civil servants to the Hawthorn, Wiltshire underground nuclear bunker in the period leading up to a nuclear war [ [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/sfs/new_page_5.htm File 4 ] ] .

Kensington Olympia was also a backup terminus for the Eurostar services in the event that Waterloo station became unusable in an emergency. Until the move to St Pancras, there were immigration facilities kept at Kensington Olympia for this purpose, and possibly also because of the aborted plan to run Eurostar services from regional stations in the UK through to the continent [ [http://ccl.kuleuven.be/~corn/blnews96.html Belgian Branch Line News 1996 ] ] [ [http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmenvtra/89/8906.htm#a7 House of Commons - Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs - Fifth Report ] ] .

It is planned to install ticket gates at the station in the near future.

Gallery

External links

References