We were very pleased to join BusinessLDN and Transport for London (TfL) last week to bring together business leaders and partners for a roundtable on the West London Orbital (WLO) – a new railway project that will be transformative for mobility and productivity.
Kindly hosted by Hammerson, the conversation left little doubt about the scale of the opportunity. The WLO could directly support at least 15,800 homes and more than 11,000 jobs. Just as importantly, the new route would reshape how people move across this part of the capital: connecting communities; linking West London’s world-leading creative and tech clusters; unlocking sites for development and opportunities for residents; and supporting more sustainable growth.
For businesses, the scheme offers improved access to a much larger workforce, with the WLO making up to 3.6 million jobs reachable within a 43‑minute commute. And for residents and commuters, they can expect journey time savings of up to 42 minutes between key employment areas.
There was a strong sense in the room that orbital connections like this are long overdue. Too many journeys across west and north-west London are still slow and indirect, holding back access to jobs, skills and opportunity. The WLO would change that, addressing a clear barrier to productivity in London – crucial not only to people and businesses in the capital, but to our national prosperity.
We also spoke about the ambitions of the West London Alliance boroughs and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation for regeneration and inclusive growth. Projects like the WLO are about more than transport. They are about unlocking places: making new homes viable, supporting town centres, and helping people access opportunity without relying on long or complex journeys. Contributions from experienced and expert colleagues around the room highlighted both how these types of projects can be funded and delivered successfully and how they can catalyse economic opportunity and placemaking.
A big focus of the discussion was what happens next. With a public consultation on the WLO expected in the coming months, this is a critical moment for the project. Businesses around the table were clear that they have a role to play as advocates and champions for the scheme. Developers and consultants expressed a clear appetite to help strengthen the evidence base supporting the WLO, and broad agreement that this ‘once in a generation’ opportunity represents a compelling ‘total package’ – linking growth clusters, unlocking housing, improving connectivity and supporting more deprived areas, while opening up important discussions about funding mechanisms such as land value capture.
For us at West London Alliance, the message was simple: the ambition is there, the case is strong, and the partnerships are in place. What matters now is maintaining momentum.
West London has a central role to play in London’s future growth. The West London Orbital can help unlock that and, as this discussion showed, there is growing support across the business community to make it happen.
If you want to support the scheme, sign our joint business letter today to back the West London Orbital: