Ealing Broadway station

Ealing Broadway is an east-west National Rail and London Underground station in Ealing in west London. The station is located in Haven Green (B455), at the termination of The Broadway, and is in Travelcard Zone 3.

Services
National Rail services are provided at the four Great Western Main Line platforms by First Great Western and Heathrow Connect. London Underground provide services to the three District and the two Central Line platforms.

For National Rail services, the next station to the east is Acton Main Line, but most trains run non-stop to. To the west, the next three local stations are West Ealing, Hanwell and Southall.

Ealing Broadway is the western terminus for both of the London Underground lines; on the District line, the next station to the east is, and on the Central Line,.

History
The Great Western Railway (GWR) opened its pioneering broad gauge tracks through Ealing Broadway between and Taplow on 6 April 1838, although Ealing Broadway station did not open until the following 1 December. As the only station in the area when it opened, it was initially named 'Ealing', and changed its name later.

Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District Line) services commenced on 1 July 1879, when the MDR opened a new branch from on its  line. The MDR built its own three-platform station to the north of the GWR one, although following the installation of a connection between the two railways to the east of the stations, MDR trains also served the GWR station from 1 March 1883, on a short-lived service running to Windsor and Eton Central station, which was withdrawn as unremunerative on 30 September 1885. It was also intended to use the connection for a service to Uxbridge Vine Street station (via West Drayton), which was never introduced.

Following electrification of the main District line route through to  in 1903, the section to Ealing Broadway was electrified in 1905, and the first electric trains ran to Ealing Broadway on 1 July 1905. The original brick-built MDR station was replaced with a stone-faced building sometime between 1907 and 1916.

Prior to World War I, plans were made by the GWR to construct a new, mainly-freight line between Ealing and Shepherd's Bush, to connect west-to-south with the West London Railway. The Central London Railway (CLR, now the Central Line) would use the line by extending its tracks the short distance north from its terminus at Wood Lane (now closed), to meet the new GWR tracks. CLR services to two new platforms at Ealing Broadway, built between the GWR and MDR stations, started on 3 August 1920, with, initially, just one intermediate stop at. The line also carried GWR steam freight trains until 1938, when the links at Ealing Broadway and west of were removed, and the line was fully transferred to London Underground.

Originally separate companies, by 1920 the MDR (by now known as the District Railway) and the CLR were both owned by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (LER). Despite this, the CLR services operated via the GWR station building, not the Underground one.

The GWR-built station was demolished in the 1970s and replaced by a low concrete structure containing shops and a ticket hall, with a high-rise office building above. The new station building served all the lines, and the separate District Line station ticket hall was closed, although the building remains, and the original station entrance is now a shop.

On 8 June 2006, a 14-year old male was killed whilst trespassing on the District line railway track at Platform 9.

The station today
The combined station has nine platforms:
 * four National Rail (platforms 1 to 4). Platforms 1 and 2 are for non-stop trains, except during engineering work and disruption. Platforms 1 and 3 serve trains leaving London, while 2 and 4 are into London. Most of the National Rail platforms are open to the elements, although there are some waiting rooms on each platform.
 * two Central line (5 and 6), which have a shared awning canopy.
 * three District Line (7 to 9). District Line platforms 8 and 9 are partially covered by a short canopy, and retain a number of examples of early solid-disc Underground signs, used before Edward Johnston designed the familiar roundel in 1919.

All platforms are accessed through ticket barriers.

Timetable
The typical off-peak service frequency is:

First Great Western
 * 6tph (trains per hour) to (First Great Western)
 * 4tph run non-stop
 * 2tph call at Acton Main Line
 * 2tph to
 * 2tph to Reading
 * 2tph to Oxford, with some continuing to Banbury

Heathrow Connect
 * 2tph to Paddington (does not call at Acton Main Line)
 * 2tph to Heathrow Terminal 4 (Heathrow Connect)

London Underground
 * 6tph on the District Line to via
 * 9tph on the Central Line of which:
 * 6tph to via  (Central Line)
 * 3tph to via Hainault (Central Line)

Transport links
London bus routes 65, 83, 112, 207, 297, 427, 607, E1, E2, E7, E8, E9, E10, E11 and night routes N7 and N207.

Development
There are plans for Crossrail trains to call at Ealing Broadway. Services are expected to commence in 2018, after the station has been rebuilt with a spacious glass structure.

The West London Business group backs a Surbiton-to-Brent-Cross West London Orbital underground railway, based on Copenhagen Metro technology, which would include a station underground at Ealing Broadway.

The London Group of the Campaign for Better Transport has published a plan for an off-road orbital North and West London Light railway (NWLLR), sharing the Dudding Hill Line freight corridor, and using the middle two of the six track beds at North Acton tube station. In April 2009, Ealing Council voted to call on Transport for London fund a feasibility study into the light-rail proposal.