Agenda item

The report provides an update on work relating to the West London Orbital rail line. It sets out next steps, an indicative project plan and governance arrangements for taking the scheme to the next stage.

Luke Ward introduced the report which provided an update on progress made in developing proposals for delivery of a West London Orbital Railway.

The Board noted the summary of work undertaken to date, as set out in section 2.1 of the report, which had included a well-received tour of the proposed line undertaken in September 2017 with the Deputy Mayor for Transport along with senior representatives from TfL, Network Rail and the Old Oak Common and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC).  Whilst a key milestone for the scheme would be publication of the final Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS), a range of work was progressing in the meantime in terms of developing the longer term project plan, wider engagement and business case, as detailed in section 2.2 of the report.

Assuming the MTS would contain the necessary support for the scheme to proceed a number of work streams had been identified, which were outlined in section 3 of the report:

·                Technical planning studies;

·                Funding package development;

·                Community and civic engagement and consultation;

·                Governance processes

In the meantime exploratory discussions were continuing with TfL and other relevant partners, in anticipation of the MTS being published, in order to consider how best to secure the necessary level of funding to move the project forward and in relation to the technical and planning work that would be required.

In terms of feedback on the update the Chair was keen to ensure that the earlier comments made by Mr Cox were noted and the opportunity was taken to consider as wide a range of options in terms of the schemes technical development as possible.  Luke Ward confirmed that the issues raised had been noted and that whilst the scheme was still at an early stage in terms of its technical development, the need to ensure its scope was “future proofed” to include as wide a range of options as possible had been recognised.  As part of this process the Board, whilst recognising a need to manage expectations in advance of the MTS being finalised, were keen to ensure that the positive approach and progress made to date was maintained.  The opportunities created by the potential links to projects such as High Speed 2, Crossrail, the Chiltern and North Line Extensions and Brent Cross Thameslink development were noted but at the same time the Board remained aware of the need to ensure the necessary strategic overview was maintained in order to avoid the risk of any one scheme precluding another.  This would require careful management and ongoing engagement with key partners such as TfL, Network Rail and Department for Transport.

As a result of the update it was RESOLVED:

(1)       to note overall progress on the project achieved to date;

(2)       to note the outline programme of activity and project plan identified to move the project forward as detailed in sections 2 and 3 of the report, along with the key stakeholders at national regional and local level that would need to continue to be engaged as the project moved forward;