New station will be connectivity gamechanger

Welcome to Brent Cross West: the neighbourhood’s new rail station that will whisk you off to St Pancras International in a snappy 12 minutes. Yes, Brent Cross West is a gamechanger, connecting businesses, customers, friends and family and bringing central London practically onto our doorstep.

The £40m station received final planning permission in May in a unanimous decision by Barnet Council. VolkerFitzpatrick, the experienced station construction company appointed by the council, has now started on site, and the station is expected to be completed in 2022 – a significant improvement on the original plan that would have seen it open in 2031.

The stop will add a vital link for residents and visitors, both new and existing, as part of a £419m railway project. The new station is designed to expand as the neighbourhood, and London, grows: eight-car trains are expected through at first, but there’s space for 12-car trains in the future. A total of up to eight trains per hour will be using the station at peak times, and four at off-peak. A new station footbridge will provide a route across the railway tracks – useful not just for passengers but for everyone in Brent Cross Town who currently has to walk all the way up to Staples Corner to get across the line onto Edgware Road.

The new station is a project with localism and inclusivity at the centre: 20% of the people working on the build are residents of Barnet, Brent and Camden boroughs. The light and airy building design emphasises safety and comfort, as well as accessibility for anyone with mobility issues. The station will aim to have platform humps that level the boarding points to the trains, as well as step-free access from street level to the platforms.

Brent Cross West station will slot onto the existing Thameslink train line right between Hendon and Cricklewood, just to the south of the North Circular road. Heading south, the line goes to St Pancras before travelling through Farringdon, Blackfriars and London Bridge. From there it continues through south London before splitting out into destinations in the south including Gatwick Airport. Heading north, the line travels to Luton Airport, and will one day intersect with the future East West Rail at Bedford. Already, Bedford links the line in with the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, before it continues to the East Midlands and South Yorkshire. Services will depend on timetabling, so keep an eye on our site for further announcements when 2022 gets closer.