KENSINGTON (OLYMPIA) STATION

'Kensington (Olympia) station' is a National Rail and London Underground station in West London. On the Underground network it is the terminus of a short branch of the District Line from Earl's Court, although built as part of the Outer Circle; on the main-line railway it is on the West London Line between Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction, used by many trains to bypass Central London. The station was first named Kensington; in 1868 it was renamed Addison Road, as central Kensington then got its own station, High Street Kensington; in 1947 it was renamed Kensington (Olympia).
As the railway forms the boundary between two London Boroughs, the southbound platform lies in Kensington and Chelsea while the northbound and London Underground platforms are in Hammersmith and Fulham.
Main-line trains from the following operators call here:

Silverlink Metro	Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction.
Southern	Watford Junction to Gatwick Airport/Brighton.
Virgin Cross Country	Brighton to Manchester.

District Line trains serve this station on a short shuttle service from High Street Kensington via Earl's Court (the driver walks to the other end of the train, waits a few minutes, then drives back to Earl's Court). This station is in London Underground Zone 2.


On weekdays, the first tube train leaves the station at 07:18 and then they run roughly three or four times an hour as follows;

Hour	Minutes past
'07:'		18		34
'08:'	08				42	59
'09:'		16		33	48
'10:'	04	19		35		52
'11:'	04	18		34	49
'12:'	04	19		35		52
'13:'	04	18		34	49
'14:'	05	19		35		52
'15:'	04		20	35		50
'16:'	08		23		40	58
'17:'		14		31	48	57
'18:'	05		22	39
'19:'		15		36	49
'20:'	05	19		36		52
'21:'	04	18		34	48
'22:'	05	19		34	48	52
'23:'		19		37		50

This station is relatively quiet compared to its busy past, although for many years the passenger service was limited to peak-hour main-line trains each way to and from Clapham Junction, and Underground trains during exhibition times only. A large number of freight trains pass through the station, and Eurostar trains travelling to North Pole depot. Motorail services operated by British Rail used to terminate here, allowing passengers to convey their cars to London from many parts of the country.
The link to the Great western mainline, avoiding Paddington station, the western central London terminus, meant that the station was to play an important role in the Cold War should a nuclear exchange have seemed likely. The station was part of the secret plans to evacuate large numbers of civil servants to the underground nuclear bunker Hawthorn, Wiltshire, in the period leading up to a nuclear war ^[1].
It was also a backup terminus for the Eurostar services in the event that Waterloo station became unusable in an emergency. Until the move to St Pancras was confirmed, there were immigration facilities kept at Kensington Olympia, for this purpose and possibly because of the aborted plan to run Eurostar services from regional stations in the UK through to the continent
^[2]
[3]
The station appears on London Underground maps as "Kensington (Olympia)" although it is referred to on National Rail maps and timetables, and the Silverlink-maintained station signage as "Kensington Olympia".

Contents

Gallery

External links

References

Gallery

External links

References

1. http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/sfs/new_page_5.htm
2. http://ccl.kuleuven.be/~corn/blnews96.html
3. http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmenvtra/89/8906.htm#a7

'Current Services'


'Services after Shepherd's Bush station opens
and London Overground services start'