West Drayton railway station serves

West Drayton West Drayton is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and from 1929 was part of the Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District, which became part of Greater London in 1965. The s ...

and

Yiewsley Yiewsley ( ) is a large suburban village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, 2 miles (3 km) south of Uxbridge, the borough's commercial and administrative centre. Yiewsley was a chapelry in the ancient parish of Hillingdon, Middl ...

, western suburbs of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It is served by local trains operated by the

Elizabeth line The Elizabeth line is a high-frequency hybrid urban–suburban rail service in London and its suburbs. It runs services on dedicated infrastructure in central London from the Great Western Main Line west of Paddington to and via Whitechapel ...

. It is down the line from and is situated between to the east and to the west. The station is managed by Transport for London (TfL).

History

West Drayton station is on the original line of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

, and was opened on 4 June 1838 at the same time as the line. However the original station was located slightly to the west of the current station, and was relocated to its current position from 9 August 1884 when the Staines and West Drayton Railway branch line to Staines was opened. From 1 March 1883, the station was served by

District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...

services running between and Windsor. The service was discontinued as uneconomic after 30 September 1885. West Drayton was the

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated on or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines. At a station with platforms running from left to right, the minimum ...

for both the Staines branch, and an earlier branch to that opened on 8 September 1856. The Uxbridge branch line closed to passengers on 10 September 1962, but the line south of the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...

was retained for freight traffic until 8 January 1979. The Staines branch closed to passengers on 29 March 1965, but freight trains still run from West Drayton serving the aviation fuel terminal for

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

at Colnbrook and aggregates depots at Thorney and Colnbrook. From 1895 the station was named ''West Drayton and Yiewsley''; it reverted to the original name ''West Drayton'' on 6 May 1974. In preparation for the introduction of Elizabeth line services, the operation of the station was transferred from

to MTR Crossrail on behalf of Transport for London at the end of 2017.

Description

West Drayton station is situated on Station Approach in

. It is north of the centre of

and immediately to the south of the

, in the

London Borough of Hillingdon The London Borough of Hillingdon () is the largest and westernmost borough in West London, England. It was formed from the districts of Hayes and Harlington, Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, and Yiewsley and West Drayton in the ceremonial count ...

. The station has five platforms. Platform 1 down main line (away from London), platform 2 is the up main line (towards London), platform 3 is the down relief line, platform 4 is the up relief line. A fifth platform on the up goods line is not used for passenger services. This is used for freight services to access the branch line to Colnbrook and also to wait to continue on the up relief line. The platforms on the main lines see little use, other than when the relief lines are closed for maintenance. Access between the platforms is via steps and a pedestrian underpass.

Crossrail and the Elizabeth Line

The station received major improvements through the Crossrail construction project in preparation for Elizabeth Line services which commenced in May 2022. A new glass and steel extension was built together with a redeveloped main ticket office and new platform canopies. The platforms were extended to be greater than 200m long, accessed by a new over platform footbridge with four lifts.

Services

Services at West Drayton are operated by the

using EMUs. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 4 tph to * 4 tph to of which 2 continue to On Sundays, the service between London Paddington and Didcot Parkway is reduced to hourly in each direction.

Connections

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus s ...

routes 222, 350, 698, U1, U3 and U5 serve the station.

References

External links

Train times
an

from

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

To learn more about West Drayton check the community website at http://www.ub7.org. {{UK railway stations Railway stations in the London Borough of Hillingdon Great Western Main Line Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1838 Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations served by the Elizabeth line