History
The joint New North Main Line (NNML) of the Great Central and Great Western opened in 1903 and its North Acton railway station followed in 1904.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) built the Ealing & Shepherd's Bush Railway, which connected the Central London Railway (CLR) with the GWR's Ealing Broadway station. CLR trains began using the route on 3 August 1920, The stations at North Acton and West Acton were built and owned by the GWR, and both opened on 5 November 1923. As Transport for London explains:
| “ | On 18 August 1911, the Central London Railway abandoned its policy of no through running with any other railway, and secured powers to build a short extension from Wood Lane to connect with the intended Ealing & Shepherds Bush line of the Great Western Railway, over which it proposed to exercise running powers. | ” |
North of the Central line tracks were two freight lines, removed in the 1960s, running alongside the Central line as far as White City, to the north of those at a slightly higher level were the two tracks of the NNML The footbridge to the NNML platforms is on the extreme left of this 1933 photograph.
The NNML platforms closed when the Central line was extended on new track from North Acton to Greenford station in 1947. Between South Ruislip station and Old Oak Junction, the GWR line was progressively run down, and in many places it is now single-track, including the stretch running past the tube station. By May 2008, only freight trains and a once-daily passenger service provided by Chiltern Railways used this stretch of line.
The Underground station had only two platforms until in the early 1990s, for operational flexibility, an island platform was created by building a third platform north of the other two, where the old freight line track bed had been. The third platform became the eastbound road and the erstwhile eastbound platform (now the middle platform) was resignalled to allow it to be used also for terminating and starting services. This change allows shuttle services to be run to White City from Ealing Broadway and from West Ruislip in the event of problems elsewhere on the Central line, and at certain times of the day some trains coming from central London are scheduled to terminate at North Acton .
Read more about this topic: North Acton Tube Station
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