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Camden High Line

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marko2

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Camden Highline (https://www.camdenhighline.com) is proposing to convert disused railway tracks from Kentish Town Road to Kings Cross into a walkable nature reserve. This seems to include the disused tracks through Camden Road Stations and the derelict bridge across Camden Road.

I recall various proposals to reinstate these tracks over the years to various ends. It is really a good idea to lose them forever? The group claims that Network Rail, Tfl and Sadiq Kahn are engaged - whether the latter really understands what the former two might have in mind is not clear.
 
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Railwaysceptic

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I imagine both TfL and Network Rail are aware that the currently unused capacity in the Camden Road Station area may one day need to be brought back into use.
 
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Chris Butler

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It would be really good to have a description (or even diagram/map) of where the route in question is and what additional rail route (or tracks) it could provide. I saw the photos on the website linked, but I didn't see a map.
 
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Railwaysceptic

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Chris Butler said:
It would be really good to have a description (or even diagram/map) of where the route in question is and what additional rail route (or tracks) it could provide. I saw the photos on the website linked, but I didn't see a map.
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It's a short stretch of the North London Line (NLL) and terminates at the west end of Camden Road Station. Although the NLL for the most part is two track, there was/is a four track section from Dalston to Camden Road Station. The line is still four track from Dalston until Camden Road East Junction (roughly over the Midland Main Line). From there, the now redundant track bed for the other two tracks is still in railway possession and continues up to and including Camden Road Station where the line is above ground level. The existing two track formation continues west over Camden Road and Kentish Town Road and splits at Camden Road West Junction, one route proceeding through the remains of Primrose Hill Station to join the WCML while the NLL continues toward Gospel Oak and Willesden Junction.

Because this section is very busy and may become even more so, several people have suggested that a second bridge should be thrown across Camden and Kentish Town Roads and that four track should be extended to Camden Road West Junction.
 
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PeterC

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I think that one house would need to be demolished in order to cross Kentish Town Road as the old four track alignment ended on the east side of the road while the lines divide on the west.

Four tracking up to Camden West would take a lot more work than simple four tracking and new bridges as Overground uses what was the southern pair of tracks but needs to take the northern branch at Camden West Jnc. However the existing alignments should be preserved for future railway use.
 
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Muzer

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There is frequent wibble of the possibility of four-tracking Camden Road, then running East London Line services through to the Watford DC instead of the current Euston services (to free up capacity at Euston for HS2), and running the existing Stratford to Richmond/Clapham ones. Then those two services wouldn't conflict at all.

I'm not convinced myself.
 
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dmncf

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Railwaysceptic said:
It's a short stretch of the North London Line (NLL) and terminates at the west end of Camden Road Station. Although the NLL for the most part is two track, there was/is a four track section from Dalston to Camden Road Station. The line is still four track from Dalston until Camden Road East Junction (roughly over the Midland Main Line). From there, the now redundant track bed for the other two tracks is still in railway possession and continues up to and including Camden Road Station where the line is above ground level. The existing two track formation continues west over Camden Road and Kentish Town Road and splits at Camden Road West Junction, one route proceeding through the remains of Primrose Hill Station to join the WCML while the NLL continues toward Gospel Oak and Willesden Junction.

Because this section is very busy and may become even more so, several people have suggested that a second bridge should be thrown across Camden and Kentish Town Roads and that four track should be extended to Camden Road West Junction.
Click to expand...
It seems strange that the railway has always had this quite short two track section in Camden, with four track sections to the west and east. Is there any historical reason why this short two track section persisted?
 
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Chris Butler

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Railwaysceptic said:
It's a short stretch of the North London Line (NLL) and terminates at the west end of Camden Road Station ... The existing two track formation continues west over Camden Road and Kentish Town Road and splits at Camden Road West Junction ,..
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this very helpful explanation. With it I could find it easily on Google Maps.

I have no idea of the practicality of the second bridge, but I see your point ... on the face of it, it looks like a potential very useful addition of capacity. In fact I wonder why it hasn't been proposed already.

By the way, I think you mean "The existing two track formation continues west over Camden Road Street and Kentish Town Road ...".
 
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marko2

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It's worth pointing out that an almost parallel walking route already exists - one that predated the railway by about 50 years - which is very pleasant. The Regent's Canal.
 
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Dr_Paul

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The priority at Camden Road should be sorting out the NLL bottleneck, not just putting back into use the northern platforms at the station, but also widening the viaduct to four tracks through to the junction. Having this walkway would make this necessary work that much more difficult to arrange.
 
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Railwaysceptic

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Chris Butler said:
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this very helpful explanation. With it I could find it easily on Google Maps.

I have no idea of the practicality of the second bridge, but I see your point ... on the face of it, it looks like a potential very useful addition of capacity. In fact I wonder why it hasn't been proposed already.

By the way, I think you mean "The existing two track formation continues west over Camden Road Street and Kentish Town Road ...".
Click to expand...
You're quite right. My mistake!
 
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PeterC

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Dr_Paul said:
The priority at Camden Road should be sorting out the NLL bottleneck, not just putting back into use the northern platforms at the station, but also widening the viaduct to four tracks through to the junction. Having this walkway would make this necessary work that much more difficult to arrange.
Click to expand...
Widening through to the junction would require land aquisition and property demolition as well as new bridges. The crossing of Kentish Town Road has only ever been two track. That doesn't mean that the alignment shouldn't be protected, just that quad tracking isn't quite the quick fix that it seems at first sight.
 
Mikey C

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This Camden High Line seems a pretty pointless project to me, as it doesn't really go anywhere and unlike the famous one in New York, doesn't seems an attractive way of walking across London.

The NY one is great as it saves walking along and across busy roads, that's not the case in Camden. And you can walk along the canal to get to Kings Cross anyway
 
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