Present
Developments in recent years have been on the southern section of the former GWR site, either side of the 1970s BR High Speed Train depot. This has been added to in width, and now services trains operated by First Great Western, Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect. The allocation is presently:
- Class 43 High Speed Train – used for First Great Western long-distance express services
- Class 57 – locomotive used for First Great Western Night Riviera Sleeper services
- Class 165 – two- or three-coach Turbo DMU used on commuter services to London (ex First Great Western Link)
- Class 166 – three-coach Turbo DMU used on longer commuter services to London (ex First Great Western Link)
- Class 360 – five-coach EMU used on Heathrow Connect services (joint operation with BAA)
- Class 332 – four- and five-coach EMU used on Heathrow Express services.
- Class 180 – 'Adelante' diesel multiple unit used for semi-fast services – to assist Hull Trains with maintenance.
Detailed design work is now underway in preparation for the construction of another new depot, this time on the northern part of the site. This will effectively replace the former locomotive depot and the Coronation Sidings area. It will provide full servicing, maintenance and storage for the proposed new fleet of Crossrail trains which will operate between Maidenhead on the Great Western main line and Shenfield on the Great Eastern main line, using a newly constructed tunnel running West-to-East under London. The new development is large and will effectively fill up the remaining area at Old Oak Common.
At the time of writing Old Oak Common is also being considered as the location for a major interchange station between the GW main line, Crossrail, Heathrow Express and the proposed HS2 high speed line from London (Euston) to Birmingham/Manchester/Leeds.
Read more about this topic: Old Oak Common TMD
Famous quotes containing the word present:
“An oblong puddle inset in the coarse asphalt; like a fancy footprint filled to the brim with quicksilver; like a spatulate hole through which you can see the nether sky. Surrounded, I note, by a diffuse tentacled black dampness where some dull dun dead leaves have stuck. Drowned, I should say, before the puddle had shrunk to its present size.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“We see past time in a telescope and present time in a microscope. Hence the apparent enormities of the present.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“Those who wander in the world avowedly and purposely in pursuit of happiness, who view every scene of present joy with an eye to what may succeed, certainly are more liable to disappointment, misfortune and unhappiness, than those who give up their fate to chance and take the goods and evils of fortune as they come, without making happiness their study, or misery their foresight.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)