Elizabeth line passengers are set to board more independently at Old Oak Common after a redesign of the station’s four surface platforms removed the need to rely on ramps for many journeys. Platforms 5 to 8 will be built to better match Elizabeth line train height, reducing the step and horizontal gap between train and platform.
The change addresses an accessibility problem in the station’s original design. The platforms had been planned at the standard height used across much of the national rail network. That arrangement would have left a step for Elizabeth line passengers, with ramps needed to provide step-free boarding. The Department for Transport has now approved an exemption from the usual platform-height requirement so the station can use a different engineering solution.
Instead of raising the platforms, the tracks serving platforms 5 to 8 will be lowered. Solid concrete slab track will be installed through the station rather than conventional ballast. This allows the platforms and other station infrastructure to retain their planned specifications while reducing the gap at the train interface.
For many wheelchair users and other passengers with reduced mobility, the smaller step and gap should make it possible to board and leave an Elizabeth line train without a ramp or staff assistance. The design is also intended to make journeys easier for older people, passengers carrying luggage and parents or carers travelling with pushchairs. The station’s routes between street level and the platforms are planned to be step-free as well.
The benefit matters beyond the immediate station entrance. Old Oak Common is being built as an interchange for HS2, the Elizabeth line, Great Western Main Line services and Heathrow Express. The underground HS2 platforms are also designed to be step-free, allowing passengers to move between the high-speed railway and Elizabeth line without encountering stairs along the interchange route. Elizabeth line passengers are expected to account for about 90 per cent of interchanges at the station.
The station sits in west London between East Acton and North Acton, in an area planned for substantial housing and commercial growth. A step-free route from street to train is relevant to people travelling locally as well as those changing between rail services. The access arrangements at the station’s entrances and interchange corridors will therefore be part of the practical benefit, alongside the smaller gap at the Elizabeth line platforms.
The new arrangement is not a guarantee of level boarding for every train that might use those tracks. The platforms are being designed to accommodate different passenger and freight services, and operational flexibility is being retained. Level boarding applies to Elizabeth line passengers when those trains use their usual platforms. If another type of train is routed there, its doors and floor height may not align in the same way.
Old Oak Common will be the Elizabeth line’s 42nd station and is intended to connect passengers with more than 100 destinations. Its opening date for Elizabeth line services, however, has not been confirmed. That uncertainty is separate from HS2’s current opening-stage forecast: the first trains between Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon Street are expected between May 2036 and October 2039. This window does not set a date for Elizabeth line trains to start calling at Old Oak Common.
Work on the station’s eight conventional platforms at ground level is due to proceed following completion of the six underground high-speed platforms. The conventional platforms will serve the Elizabeth line, Great Western Main Line and Heathrow Express. The redesign settles an important element of how Elizabeth line passengers will board, but passengers will still need a confirmed service start date and details of how the new interchange will operate as construction advances.
