HS2: West Londoners voice opinion on Old Oak Common being the gateway into capital for near future

Residents in Acton, just a 10 minute walk from Old Oak Common station discuss how the HS2 will impact the local area in West London

Transcript

00:00 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has finally confirmed at the Conservative Party Conference that

00:06 the HS2 will not be running from Birmingham to Manchester. The train, now just travelling

00:12 between Birmingham and London, will eventually depart and terminate at Euston Station, however

00:17 that site is not yet finished. In the meantime, passengers will have to change

00:22 at Old Oak Common Station, located between North Acton and Wilston Junction. We spoke

00:28 to locals in Acton to find out how they felt about being the gateway into London for the

00:33 time being.

00:34 I think it will make a difference to the community because it's just a great and easy way to

00:44 travel all the way to Birmingham and all the way back. I've been there a few times and

00:50 I had to, it was quite difficult, but to get a one route there, one train, I think is quite

00:58 handy so I think it will affect the public in a good way.

01:03 It's fine as long as it doesn't disturb any other tube lines or anything like that or

01:08 any other train lines but yeah, it's going to be a lot to deal with I think.

01:14 I think it will be a positive, bring more people into the area, make it easier for people

01:20 living here to travel all over the country.

01:24 Would you rather Old Oak Common be the main gateway into London or are you happy that

01:29 it's going to be transferred to Euston?

01:30 I think it's happy that it goes into Euston as well. I'm not sure Euston has the Elizabeth

01:35 line does it? So there's quite a good connection here so no, I think it's fine.

01:42 So how will it really, what will actually happen? Well we would hope that by 2026 when

01:47 Old Oak is supposed to be ready, okay, let's call that 2029 maybe or 2030, then probably

01:54 what will happen is Transport for London will change the bus routes so that they actually

01:58 go up to Old Oak.

02:01 Of course it's a positive, you've got more people here, the Elizabeth line will stop

02:07 there as well so most of the development will be around Old Oak. Should it actually improve,

02:12 should it help this area? Yeah it will, it's inevitable. But will there be sticking points?

02:19 Yes, inevitably because we'll get it wrong first, second, third try but the station will

02:24 be there for the best part of forever and so eventually the infrastructure around will

02:30 line up with it. TfL have sufficient powers to make that happen frankly.

02:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]