Staines and West Drayton Railway
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The Staines & West Drayton Railway (S&WDR) is a former railway on the western edge of London, England. It was about 5+1⁄2 miles (9 km) long and ran roughly north–south along the River Colne, parallel to the modern M25 motorway west of Heathrow Airport. It opened from West Drayton on the Great Western Main Line to Colnbrook in 1884 and reached Staines the next year.
Passengers
By 1961 it had five intermediate stations but local passenger traffic failed to develop. The area is sparsely populated, being in the flood plain of the river Colne and with the large Staines and Wraysbury reservoirs on both sides of the line. The line was closed to passengers on 29 March 1965 as a consequence of the Beeching cuts.[1]
Connections
The promoters had wanted a connection at Staines to the
The line today
Northern section
Freight trains still run from West Drayton to Colnbrook, supplying aviation fuel for Heathrow Airport[3] and aggregate depots at Thorney and Colnbrook.
Southern section
The section south of Colnbrook to the bridge over the Southern Railway's line from Staines to Windsor was abandoned and track lifted in 1981 as part of the route was required for the construction of the
Proposed changes
The proposed Airtrack-Lite rail link from Heathrow Airport through Staines would entail laying track near the former southern part of the S&WDR route.[4]
Phase 2 of the proposed
References
- ^ Staines West station at Disused Stations in the UK www.disused-stations.org.uk Accessed 2008-11-20
- ISBN 1-874103-38-0
- ^ "Colnbrook Rail Terminal and Colnbrook Pipeline". bpa.co.uk. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ "Improving public transport access to Heathrow Airport, October 2008, Consultation brochure 2" (PDF) (Press release). BAA Heathrow Airport. 20 October 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2008.