Orbirail was a name for a suggested orbital railway route around London. It would involve connecting the extended North London Line, East London Line, the Inner South London Line and the West London Line, possibly including the Gospel Oak to Barking Line. The combined line would orbit London in Zone 2, Zone 3 and (possibly) Zone 4. It is not to be confused with London's existing circular railway, the Circle line of the London Underground.
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Until recently Orbirail has had no official status as a planned project. However, Transport for London's London Overground when completed will achieve substantially the same objective. On 12 February 2009, Mayor Boris Johnson and the then Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon announced £75 Million to fund the Southern extension of the Overground network between Surrey Quays and Clapham Junction as part of the East London line extension, creating the final connection of an orbital railway for London to be completed in time for the 2012 Olympic Games.[2] However, the timeline now published by TfL states that while construction of the East London Line Extension will be completed by around that time, the line will not open until late 2012, well after the Olympics and Paralympics.[3]
London's railway system was largely built in the 19th century by competing private companies. The benefits of an integrated transport system were unknown at this time and each mainline rail company built its own terminus in central London and operated radial routes from that point. For example, Waterloo railway station in south-west London is the focus of lines radiating out from London to the south and west. Meanwhile metropolitan and suburban railways developed also on radial lines.
The first orbital rail service was the inner Circle line, which was operated over the central sections of the Metropolitan line and District line. This linked most of the mainline stations and was a commercial success.
The success of the Inner Circle led to the operation of a number of other semi-orbital routes within the capital, over existing main line routes and sections of the MR's and MDR's Inner Circle tracks:
London was a much smaller city than it is now and most commercial activity was focused at the centre. These outer routes failed to attract the passenger numbers hoped for and were eventually cut-back or ended while other, more radial services on the lines continued.
Other semi-orbital routes fared little better. Throughout the 20th century London's railways operated on a radial model and the few remaining semi-orbital passenger routes withered with the lines used mainly for freight services. The National Rail network was privatised with radial franchises. Only the original inner Circle line enjoyed success.
Throughout the 20th century London expanded both in size and population and employment ceased to be as heavily concentrated in the centre. Many more people were travelling through central London by Underground and many of them were only travelling in on one radial route so that they could travel out again on another. Congestion increased and additional Underground lines were built at great expense.
It was at this point that some suggested reviving and expanding the semi-orbital routes. The reasoning was that these routes could relieve the some of the load on central London in a much more cost effective way than the building of new tube lines. People who were travelling via central London could be provided with alternative routes. The idea coalesced around the suggested name "Orbirail", and it was even suggested that a fully orbital route could be operated, something that the outer Circle lines never quite achieved. The idea won few friends in the National Rail network for commercial and operational reasons.
The situation changed drastically with the creation of Transport for London as a single body with overall responsibility for transport in London. During Ken Livingstone's term as Mayor of London, TfL exploited the potential in the neglected peripheral rail routes and started to plan a complete orbital rail system by joining these routes together (albeit with no plan for a single fully orbital service). The new system eventually launched under the name London Overground, and work continues to complete the orbital route as more lines are added to the system. The eventual London Overground network will cover a route which bears a striking resemblance to the Outer Circle line with the East London line extension and Inner South London Line being used to complete the loop.
Political support for the principle of Orbirail continued after the change of leadership following the London mayoral election, 2008. During his election campaign, Boris Johnson published a transport manifesto which highlighted the problems associated with orbital journeys around London: [4]
| “ | TfL estimate that just under half of all Londoners’ journeys start and finish in outer London. Only around a quarter of these are made by public transport. This is because public transport options for orbital journeys are poor by comparison to the car.
One of the limitations of the public transport network in outer London is the lack of direct and convenient orbital routes. (...) In fact, many orbital routes are only made accessible by making a radial journey into central London. |
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The manifesto noted that 64% of journeys in outer London were made by cars or vans, and suggested that improved orbital public transport would help to reduce this figure, proposing a trial of orbital express bus routes linking key suburban rail terminals.
Orbirail's proponents believe that it would be a relatively low-cost project, involving only a small amount of new track, some improvement to existing lines and an increase in train frequency. In return, the route would allow many people to make journeys without passing through Zone 1, thus relieving congestion on central London's railways.
There are complications which could prevent these lines running as single fully orbital route. Orbital railways have an intrinsic timetabling robustness problem. The trains are constantly "in orbit" so there is little scope for "recovery time" if they are delayed. A single delay can have long lasting knock on effects and be much more disruptive than on a non-orbital railway. Recovery time can be created by timetabling for longer stops at some stations but this increases journey times and reduces train frequency. (For this reason, as of December 13, 2009, the Circle Line was replaced with a spiral shaped route with distinct endpoints.) In this light, it is hard to see a larger and more complicated orbital railway being approved.
An alternative to a single fully orbital route would be two or more semi-orbital routes that join to entirely encircle London. TfL's current London Overground plans seem to point in this direction.
An additional problem is poor interchange with many of the radial routes. The proposed route offers no interchange with the Great Western Main Line, Chiltern Main Line, the East Coast Main Line, the Great Eastern Main Line or the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway. Only local services on the West Coast Main Line stop at Willesden Junction. It has similarly poor interchange with many London Underground lines. Poor interchange options are a general problem with most of London's older railways, which were built by competing private companies in the 19th century before the need for a coherent and integrated transport network was understood.
