Should All GWR Trains Call at Old Oak Common?

[Yossarian22]

Adding 5 min by having Inter-City Services stop and OOC is hardly an inconvenience to the vast majority of inter-city travelers and could actually prove highly beneficial. OOC will connect to Crossrail and quite likely the Overground. Many who would have chosen to change at Paddington would simply change at OOC leaving just those who wish to take the tube going on to Paddington. This is quite likely when you consider that the GWML-Crossrail connection at OOC will involve simply switching platforms while the change at Paddington will involve walking across the station to the underground Crossrail platforms. This shorter transfer time would negate the 5 min extra to the GWML services. This would have a beneficial effect on Paddington traffic. People transferring earlier to Crossrail means less pressure on the Paddington crossrail station and people potentially taking the overground means less pressure on southbound tube lines at Paddington. This is without even bringing HS2 or HEX into it. Considering HS2 and HEX stopping all GWML services at OOC would not only take the pressure of Paddington with passengers transferring to HEX at OOC (if it stops there) but also the sub-surface tube lines going west from Paddington to Euston/KX/St-Pan. Passengers from the entirety of the Thames Vally could easily connect from any services on the GWML to HS2 avoiding the need to traverse London by tube. This would also theoretically put one of the UK's most productive areas (M4 corridor) within one change and 4/4:30hs of any major UK city

 

[BayPaul]

I think without either Heathrow Southern Link and/or a decent solution for Overground, the advantages of stopping all of the GWR fast services at OOC would be fairly small, as the only connections available would be to Heathrow and HS2 - as discussed earlier HS2 connections from probably everywhere apart from Newbury area and Reading (and possibly the stations up to Didcot as well) will be quicker or similar speed via Cross Country to Birmingham. Heathrow connections would be useful, but Heathrow Western Link would provide those from Reading, whilst stations like Maidenhead would already have a direct OOC service on Crossrail trains. A faster change to Crossrail would be a nice to have, but not worth the extra time on the expresses. If it were possible to stop HEX and a few of the semi-fast services to say Bedwyn and Didcot then that would be ideal, but as Bald Rick says, it is probably a challenge too far for the timetable.

If Southern Link and Overground come in place, however, OOC becomes a really useful interchange station (I suspect it would have more stations a single change away than any other in the country) then the situation changes significantly, as it would become the best place to change for swathes of north and south London and the South East. At that point, stopping all of the fast services must be worthy of consideration