West Hampstead railway station

Infobox London station
name = West Hampstead


manager = London Overground
zone = 2
locale = West Hampstead
borough = London Borough of Camden
start=1888
platforms=2
railexits0405=0.690
railexits0506=0.680
railexits0607=1.897
railcode=WHD
latitude = 51.5473
longitude = -0.1918

West Hampstead is a National Rail station on the North London Line between Brondesbury and Finchley Road & Frognal. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.

The station and all trains are operated by London Overground. The normal service is a train every 15 minutes to Richmond and a train every 15 minutes to Stratford.

History

The station originally opened in 1888 and was called West End Lane until its name was changed in 1975. [citebook|title=London Railway Atlas|author=Joe Brown|publisher=Ian Allan Publishing|date=2006] Rail services were operated by the North London Railway until British Rail took control of operations. The station later became part of the Network SouthEast system.

Following the privatisation of British Rail, the station was operated by the Silverlink train franchise from 1997 until 2007, when operations passed to Transport for London's London Overground system.

Anglia Railways used to run a regional rail service that called here, between Norwich and Basingstoke. This service was discontinued in Autumn 2002 due to congestion on the North London Line and the financial return being less than that forecast.Fact|date=July 2008

The station received a major refurbishment towards the end of 2007, to coincide with the London Overground takeover. The ticket office has a new layout including automatic ticket gates and machines and the station is now staffed throughout traffic hours (as are all London Overground stations).

Interchanges

The station is situated within close walking distance of two nearby stations:
*London Underground: West Hampstead tube station (Jubilee line)
*National Rail: West Hampstead Thameslink railway station (First Capital Connect).

Future

The present arrangement of three separate stations (Thameslink, Overground and Jubilee line) means that passengers wishing to change lines must walk along or cross West End Lane, a busy main road. A redevelopment proposal was put forward in 2004 by Chiltern Railways which would link the three West Hampstead stations with subterranean walkways. New platforms would be built for the Chiltern Main Line, and possibly also for the Metropolitan line, and the Thameslink and London Overground (formerly Silverlink) stations would be relocated on the east side of West End Lane. [cite web
url=http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/cms-service/download/asset/?asset_id=564194
title=Planning Framework for West Hampstead Interchange Area Appendix 2
publisher=London Borough of Camden
date=2005-04-19
accessdate=2008-07-29
pages=25] The redevelopment would involve demolishing existing buildings and the redevelopment of West End Lane as "a tree-lined boulevard". [cite web
url=http://www.alwaystouchout.com/project/35
title=West Hampstead Interchange
publisher=AlwaysTouchOut.com
date=2006-01-11
accessdate=2008-07-29] [cite web
url=http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/environment/planning-and-built-environment/planning-consultations/recently-completed-planning-consultations/west-hampstead-interchange-draft-planning-framework.en;jsessionid=A1B1F3E4933E5E57C796C7B2389A2E0E.node1
title=West Hampstead Interchange Draft Planning Framework
publisher=London Borough of Camden
date=2005-04-19
accessdate=2008-07-29] The plans were put on hold in 2007 due to uncertainty over the North London Line rail franchise. [cite web
url=http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/031507/news031507_12.html
title=Station interchange plans put on hold
publisher=Camden New Journal
date=2007-03-15
accessdate=2008-07-29]

References

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