Heathrow Junction railway station

Infobox Closed London station
name = Heathrow Junction


owner = Heathrow Express
locale = Heathrow Airport
platforms = 1
start = 19 January 1998
end = 25 May 1998
replace = Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3

Heathrow Junction was a short-lived railway station built to serve London's Heathrow Airport.

Between 1988 and 1998, the Heathrow Express shuttle service was built to connect Paddington station to Heathrow Airport. A new spur was built from the existing Great Western Railway mainline to the airport, running mostly in tunnelcite book
last =Connor
first =J.E.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =GWR Disused Stations in Greater London
publisher =Connor & Butler
date =2000
location =Colchester
pages =68
url =
doi =
isbn =094769931 7 ] . To save costs, the tunnel was built using the relatively new New Austrian Tunnelling method. Unfortunately, the construction was not a success and in 1994 the tunnels near the airport collapsed [cite web
last =Barakat
first =Dr M
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =Ground Movement & Structures Response Due to Tunnelling
work =
publisher =Imperial College London Faculty of Engineering
date =
url =http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/geotechnics/research/barakat
format =
doi =
accessdate =2007-05-29 ] .

As the collapse not only delayed the construction of the railway tunnel beneath the airport but caused the suspension of services on the Piccadilly Line service to the airport, a decision was made to open a temporary surface level station on the edge of the airport whilst construction continued. The line to the new station followed the route of a long-disused canal known as "Broad's Dock" [cite web
last =Carr
first =Bob
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =Heathrow Junction to Close
work =
publisher =Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society
date =1998-05
url =http://www.glias.org.uk/news/176news.html#C
format =
doi =
accessdate =2007-05-29 ] . Heathrow Junction station was situated in Stockley Park, slightly to the north of the station. Class 332 trains (branded as "Heathrow Fast Train") carried passengers from Paddington to Heathrow Junction (a journey of 12 minutes) while a fleet of high-speed buses carried the passengers the remaining distance to the airport [Citation
last =
first =
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title =New Heathrow Service From Central London
newspaper =New York Times
pages =
year =
date =1998-02-22
url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9C06EFDC163FF931A15751C0A96E958260 ] .

On 23 May 1998 the tunnels to Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and Heathrow Terminal 4 stations opened. On 25 May 1998 the Heathrow Express service to the new stations commenced and trains no longer served Heathrow Junction. Within 10 days the track leading to the station had been dismantled.

References