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The Greenford branch line is a 2¾ mile (4.5 km) suburban railway line in west London, England. It runs from a triangular junction with the Great Western Main Line west of West Ealing to a central bay platform at Greenford tube station on the London Underground Central line. A triangular junction near Greenford connects to the New North Main Line. The line serves mainly the suburbs of Ealing and Greenford.
The line is owned by Network Rail and is operated by First Great Western[1]. Trains from the branch continue on the Great Western Main Line to reach Paddington, typically in twenty four minutes, and call at the three intermediate stations: West Ealing, Ealing Broadway and Acton Main Line.
All services are operated with two-car Class 165 Turbo diesel trains. There is no Sunday service.
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Connections
- At Greenford: London Underground Central line,
- At West Ealing: Westbound local services and to Heathrow Airport,
- At Ealing Broadway: Great Western Main Line to Slough, Reading, and Oxford, and to London Underground District line and Central line,
- At Paddington: London Underground Bakerloo, Circle, District (Wimbledon branch), and Hammersmith & City lines.
History
The opening of the line in 1903 coincided with the opening of a station at Park Royal to serve the Royal Agricultural Show being held in the grounds of part of the Twyford Abbey Estate[2][3]. The Show ran from 15 June 1903 to 4 July 1903 during which period trains operated a circular service to and from Paddington via Park Royal and Ealing. Normal services started on 2 May 1904 and the links to Greenford station were put in on 1 October 1904. The loop formed by the branch, the GW Main Line, and the New North Main Line is sometimes used for turning trains.
Locally the service has been called the 'Push-and-pull' from the days of steam when the engine could not change ends at Greenford and so the locomotive pulled the carriages one way and pushed them on the return run (see GWR Autocoach).
Drayton Green, Castle Bar Park and South Greenford have short platforms, and only two-car trains may be used.[4]
References
- ^ http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk - www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk
- ^ www.brent-heritage.co.uk - Twyford & Park Royal
- ^ www.british-history.ac.uk - West Twyford
- ^ Trackmaps 3, Dia. 19A
Further reading
- Conolly, W.P. (1997). Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer (5th ed.). Shepperton : Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3.
- MacDermot, E.T. (1931), History of the Great Western Railway, II, 1863-1921, London: Great Western Railway Co., 654 pp.
- Mitchell, V.; Smith, K. (2000), Branch Lines of West London, Midhurst: Middleton Press, ISBN 1-901706-50-8, 96 pp.
- Network Rail (2007). Current Timetables, Electronic National Rail Timetable (eNRT). Network Rail. http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3828.aspx. Retrieved 2007-06-11.
- Trackmaps. 3 Western [map], 4th edition, Railway Track Diagrams. Cartography by John Yonge. (November 2005) ISBN 978-0-9549866-1-X.
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