Old Oak Common is positioned to become London’s next metropolitan centre, built around a station intended to be the country’s most significant new interchange in generations. The project aligns national rail investment with metropolitan planning to refashion a swathe of West London that has long been isolated by yards, depots and arterial rail lines. Its intent is more than transport engineering. It is a deliberate attempt to create a globally connected commercial and residential district that also serves adjacent neighbourhoods. At its core sits Old Oak Common Station, the pivot for HS2, the Elizabeth Line, Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express, with future options for the London Overground still under assessment.
The governance vehicle is the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), a Mayoral Development Corporation with plan-making and development control powers across 650 hectares spanning Brent, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham. Its adopted Local Plan (June 2022) translates an earlier mayoral vision into statutory policy: a compact centre around the station, 25,500 homes over time, up to 65,000 jobs, 50% affordable housing as a strategic target, and 30% public green space. This article examines the strategy, infrastructure and economics behind the scheme, weighs the risks, and sets Old Oak Common in a global context. The focus remains neutral, evidence-led and accessible to a general audience, policymakers and specialists.
From rail convergence to opportunity area
The catalyst is the unique crossing of HS2 and the Elizabeth Line at Old Oak. That convergence, rare in London’s rail geography, created both an opportunity area and a rationale for a place-making project on a national scale. The early masterplan set out under Boris Johnson in 2013 sketched a 30-year transformation of industrial lands into a dense, mixed-use district. Core numbers have remained consistent across successive reviews, with later documents refining projections to 25,500 homes and up to 65,000 jobs, subject to infrastructure sequencing, viability, and market conditions.
The change of mayoral administration in 2016 triggered a formal reappraisal. That review challenged early land deals and delivery assumptions, then redirected effort toward phased development starting on public land, branded Old Oak West. The shift was pragmatic after private proposals fell away, notably the collapse of a large scheme by the area’s biggest landowner. The outcome was a plan that remains ambitious but is more incremental, using infrastructure delivery as the main lever to unlock adjoining plots.
The OPDC governance model and statutory plan
OPDC operates as the local planning authority for the opportunity area, integrating policy, design guidance and development control. The Local Plan sets the spatial structure: concentration of height and density next to the station, clear routes to the canal, new bridges, and a hierarchy of streets led by an Old Oak High Street running north to south and a complementary east to west Grand Union Street. The plan protects the Park Royal industrial estate as a Strategic Industrial Location, intensifies where feasible, and integrates logistics with new development so that growth does not erode productive employment land.
Social aims are explicit. The plan targets 50% affordable housing across the lifetime of the project, with a preferred tenure mix of London Affordable Rent and intermediate tenures such as London Living Rent and Shared Ownership. Delivery depends on viability tests, project by project, but the policy direction is unambiguous. The plan also mandates 30% public green space, linking new parks with restored canal edges and neighbourhood squares.
Inside the super hub station
Old Oak Common Station is designed as a two-level, 14-platform interchange. Six HS2 platforms run 20 metres below ground. Eight surface platforms serve the Great Western Main Line, the Elizabeth Line and the Heathrow Express. The station box stretches roughly 850 metres. The engineering remit includes large-scale excavation in London Clay, long platforms for high-speed operation, and passenger handling designed for flows up to a quarter of a million users on the busiest days.
Connectivity is the value proposition. The station will provide high-speed links to the Midlands and, via classic lines, the North West and Scotland. It offers direct interchange with GWR services to the West of England and South Wales, a rapid Heathrow link, and Elizabeth Line services to the West End, the City and Canary Wharf. The purpose is to divert interchange activity away from already congested central termini, give airport and western main line passengers a new transfer point, and shorten journeys across the capital.
A material change in 2023 made Old Oak Common the temporary London terminus for HS2 until the Euston scheme is funded and delivered. This improves initial deliverability but pushes heavy demand onto the Elizabeth Line for onward travel into central London. The operational risk is crowding during peaks, at least until an onward HS2 connection at Euston opens. The trade-off is explicit: earlier benefits for national connectivity, higher near-term pressure on metropolitan capacity.
Architecture, engineering and environmental performance
The most visible marker of the station is a vaulted roof designed by WilkinsonEyre with WSP. The roof is more than a gesture. It creates clear spans for legible wayfinding, integrates rooflights to bring daylight to concourse and platform levels, and forms part of a passive natural ventilation strategy that reduces operational energy use. The building targets high sustainability performance, including an ‘Outstanding’ BREEAM rating, on-site photovoltaics, and ground-source heat pumps for low-carbon heating and cooling.
Digital methods have been used throughout the design development process. Passenger experience was modelled using virtual reality with eye-tracking and physiological sensing to test wayfinding and stress points, then iterated to improve legibility before construction. Structural optimisation, including wind tunnel testing for the unusual roof geometry, reduced steel tonnage and embodied carbon, cutting costs and lifecycle emissions together. Around the station, the public space strategy introduces new planting, pocket parks, wetlands and generous routes that convert a formerly land-locked site into an urban centre connected to the Grand Union Canal.
Fun fact: Design refinements to the roof structure saved roughly 1,000 tonnes of steel, which the engineering team equated to about 2,700 tonnes of avoided embodied carbon and a multimillion-pound cost reduction.
The accessibility debate
A persistent concern relates to level boarding. Deep-level HS2 platforms are designed for level boarding from day one. The eight surface platforms serving GWR and the Elizabeth Line will not provide consistent level boarding across all rolling stock because of network-wide vehicle and platform height constraints on the Great Western Main Line. Accessibility advocates, Assembly Members and user groups have criticised the inconsistency inside a single station that is otherwise promoted as a seamless super hub. Operators cite fleet diversity and freight interfaces for the compromise. This remains a reputational and user-experience risk that will need to be mitigated through staff support, boarding ramps, service information, and future rolling stock strategies.
Overground connectivity options
The opportunity to connect the London Overground has been examined through options that vary by cost, route geometry and urban impact. A new viaduct option offers the most complete interchange and the most significant relief to central London stations, yet it is the most expensive and raises environmental questions near Wormwood Scrubs. Lower-cost proposals use existing alignments but deliver fewer network benefits and longer walking interchanges. The policy question is strategic: should a national high-speed node be offered as a point-to-point project, or as part of a networked metropolitan system with strong orbital links? The decision will shape how well Old Oak Common serves everyday London journeys and intercity trips.
Housing delivery and affordability at scale
The regeneration area targets 25,500 homes across the programme period, with an annual monitoring benchmark of roughly 1,110 homes. More than 5,000 homes are reported as completed since OPDC’s inception, with permissions and pipelines identified for several thousand more. The headline 50% affordable target remains both a social commitment and a financial test. Brownfield remediation, bridges and utilities create heavy upfront costs. OPDC’s Infrastructure Delivery Plan identifies significant unfunded items and projects a funding gap even after assumed Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy receipts. Bridging that gap requires additional public grants, land value capture over time, and delivery models that phase infrastructure in step with receipts while protecting affordability.
The risk is familiar to large urban districts. Macroeconomic gains from connectivity are citywide and long-term, but the micro-level costs for schools, parks, streets and substations are immediate and local. The success of housing delivery depends on aligning those timeframes without diluting affordability or design quality.
Economic engine, jobs and industrial resilience
On jobs, the target is 65,000 across the area once mature, with an estimated GVA uplift of several billions annually at full build-out. The spatial strategy is dual. At Old Oak, high-density mixed-use grows around the station, with office floorspace and active ground floors anchoring a walkable centre. At Park Royal, policy protects and intensifies Strategic Industrial Location functions. Park Royal already supports around 43,000 jobs across more than 1,700 firms, including food manufacturing, logistics and screen industries. The plan seeks to enhance freight access, digital connectivity and energy resilience so that industrial employment expands rather than being displaced by higher-value uses. The message is clear: a global city needs both flagship offices and high-functioning production space.
Placemaking, heritage and the canal
The public realm brief aims for 30% green space across the area, delivered through a connected network rather than a single park. Proposals include new bridges to stitch neighbourhoods over the Grand Union Canal, improved towpaths, and squares tied to social infrastructure. Heritage integration features in plans to retain and adapt key buildings, such as the 1940s Rolls-Royce complex on the Cargiant site, repositioned as flexible workspace within a new park that steps down to the canal. The objective is to build identity early, not treat open space as secondary to development plots.
Transport disruption and construction logistics
Building next to the Great Western Main Line requires major possessions, particularly at weekends and during holiday periods. Paddington is facing services closures and diversions while bridges, track and interfaces are rebuilt. Disruption is expected to run through much of the decade as the station and approaches are delivered. Clear communications, alternative routing on the Elizabeth Line, and phased blockades reduce but do not remove the impact. Constituency MPs across the West of England and South Wales have raised concerns, reflecting the regional reach of the works.
Finance, funding gaps and value capture
The station itself is funded within the HS2 Phase 1 budget, with an Old Oak allocation cited at around £1.67 billion in 2019 prices. Beyond the station, OPDC’s infrastructure cost plan totals in excess of £2 billion, of which only part is funded. After forecast receipts from S106 and CIL, a funding gap remains for necessary items, supplemented by a larger pool of desirable but unfunded schemes. The intended mechanism is value capture as land values rise with improved accessibility. The scale of the gap, coupled with affordable housing commitments, suggests additional public investment will be required to keep the programme on track and ensure social infrastructure is not deferred.
Private market signals point to strong development interest. Planning application values within the immediate area reportedly rose sharply after the scheme’s inception, indicating confidence in long-term prospects. The test for policy is to convert that investor confidence into timely infrastructure provision and high-quality place outcomes.
Political perception and project delivery
Public attitudes are shaped by the turbulent national narrative around HS2: rising budgets, re-phasing, and scope changes. Old Oak Common inherits that perception even when its own delivery is on programme. Early governance disputes and land assembly setbacks amplified scrutiny. Small issues have at times been magnified against the larger HS2 backdrop. The practical response is steady transparency on cost, schedule and benefits, rigorous monitoring through the Authorities’ Monitoring Report, and visible early wins in public realm and local services.
International parallels and lessons
King’s Cross in London provides the closest domestic analogue. It benefited from a single master developer in partnership with public landowners, early investment in civic spaces such as Granary Square, and the anchoring effect of Central Saint Martins. The lesson is the value of a guiding mind, strong phasing, and early place-making to shift perceptions and de-risk later phases.
Hudson Yards in New York shows what upfront transit investment and over-site engineering can unlock. The extension of the 7 subway, financed through a bond structure linked to future tax receipts, catalysed private development above active rail yards. The cautionary note is urban character. Large decks and corporate-scale architecture can deliver floor area but risk monotony if street grain and cultural programming lag behind.
Ørestad in Copenhagen illustrates a successful transport-land value loop, with site sales funding a new metro. Yet design critics argue that rigid grids and wide open spaces limited street life. The takeaway for Old Oak is to avoid monotony, vary block sizes, mix uses at fine grain, and give early priority to human-scaled streets, doors, and everyday amenities.
What success looks like
Success will be measured in four linked ways. First, by a reliable interchange that handles national and metropolitan flows without excessive crowding, even while Old Oak serves as the initial HS2 terminus. Second, by delivery of genuinely affordable homes at scale alongside market housing, coupled with timely schools, health facilities and parks. Third, by industrial resilience at Park Royal, which grows jobs rather than displacing them. Fourth, by a coherent public realm that makes the canal and streets everyday destinations, not just corridors to the station.
The near-term tasks are direct. Keep construction disciplined so that disruption is predictable and minimised. Progress the Overground decision so orbital links are settled. Close the funding gap through credible public finance and robust value capture. Maintain the 50% affordable trajectory where viable, and be transparent when viability requires negotiation. Above all, secure early visible gains: bridges, squares, canal frontage, and community uses that prove benefit to neighbours now, while the larger station build continues.
Conclusion and outlook
Old Oak Common is a test of London’s capacity to deliver long-horizon transformation under democratic scrutiny and tight finances. The opportunity is large. A super hub can rebalance the city’s economic map toward the west, catalyse 25,500 homes and 65,000 jobs, and set a design standard for low-carbon infrastructure. The risks are equally clear. A temporary HS2 terminus relies heavily on the Elizabeth Line. Funding gaps for social and green infrastructure could erode trust if left unresolved. Inconsistencies in accessibility dent the promise of a seamless station.
The path forward is practical. Build confidence through phased, high-quality delivery, protect and enhance Park Royal, and treat streets, bridges and the canal as the first projects, not afterthoughts. Learn from King’s Cross and resist the mistakes seen at Hudson Yards and Ørestad. If policy and delivery teams align on those principles, Old Oak Common can become the next great metropolitan estate of London, a centre where global connectivity is matched by local benefit, and where the architecture of transport supports daily life as much as it serves national journeys. Think of it as a well-tuned gearbox: high-speed cogs engaging smoothly with local wheels so motion is transferred efficiently across the whole machine.
