The West London Railway was conceived to link the London and Birmingham Railway and the Great Western Railway with the Kensington Basin of the Kensington Canal, enabling access to and from London docks for the carriage of goods. It opened in 1844 but was not commercially successful.
In 1863 the canal was closed and the railway extended southwards on its alignment as the West London Extension Railway, crossing the River Thames on a new bridge and connecting with the London Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway south of the Thames. Local and long-distance passenger traffic was carried, and goods traffic exchanging between the connected railways. Passenger traffic declined after 1940, but the line remained open for sporadic freight services. In recent years regular local passenger services have revived the traffic on the line.