Ealing Broadway is a major single-level interchange station in Ealing in London, England. It is in the London Borough of Ealing, West London, and is served by the London Underground and also National Rail on the Great Western Main Line. On the Underground, it is one of three western termini of the District line, the next station being , and it is also one of two western termini of the Central line, the next station being . On the National Rail network, it is a through-station on the Great Western Main Line, down the line from , between and .
The station is managed by Transport for London and is served by London Underground and Elizabeth line services. The station saw a major upgrade and expansion as part of the Crossrail project, with a rebuilt ticket hall and the provision of step free access.
History
The Great Western Railway (GWR) opened its pioneering broad gauge tracks through Ealing Broadway between and on 6 April 1838, although Ealing Broadway station did not open until 1 December of that year. As the only station in the area when it opened, it was initially named 'Ealing', but was renamed Ealing Broadway in 1875.
District Railway (DR, now the District Line) services commenced on 1 July 1879, when the DR opened a branch from on its line. The DR built its own three-platform station (including a siding) to the north of the GWR one. However, following the installation of a connection between the two railways to the east of the stations, DR trains also served the GWR station from 1 March 1883 to 30 September 1885, on a short-lived service running to station, which quickly became unprofitable. It was also intended to use the connection for a service to station (via ), but this 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 DR station was replaced with a stone-faced building in 1910.
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 DR 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 DR and the CLR were both owned by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL). Despite this, the CLR services operated via the GWR station building, not the Underground one.
The GWR-built station was demolished in 1961 and replaced by a low concrete structure containing shops and a ticket hall, opened in 1965, with a high-rise office building above. The new station building serves all the lines, and the separate District Line station ticket hall was closed, although the building remains, and the original station facade is now the entrance for multiple shops.
On Platform 9 (District line) there are some roundels of a style dating from , three of which are replicas made in 1992.
In the mid 1990s, the Great Western Main Line through the station was electrified as part of the Heathrow Express project.
In the early 1990s, the Crossrail project was proposed to serve Ealing Broadway. After many years of planning, the project was approved in 2007. An interim TfL Rail service between suburban stations and London Paddington began in 2018, transferring to the Elizabeth line on 24 May 2022.
Accidents and incidents
On 16 November 1937, a steam railcar overran signals and crashed into the signal box. On 19 December 1973, an express passenger train was derailed when an unsecured inspection door on the locomotive hauling it struck point rodding, causing a set of points to move under the train. Ten people were killed, 94 were injured. On 19 July 2000, a Real IRA bomb was planted near tracks in the station. It was discovered and destroyed by police under a controlled explosion. On 2 March 2016, a District Line train derailed just outside the station due to a set of points set incorrectly. There were no injuries.