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East London railway extension to Clapham is given the go-ahead
Katharine Barney12 Feb 2009
The planned extension of the East London rail line was today given the go-ahead by Boris Johnson, and Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon.
The new line funded by the Government, Transport for London and City Hall will link Surrey Quays to Peckham and Clapham Junction, providing direct links to the City and Docklands.
The extension is intended to reduce congestion on radial routes, and at central London interchange stations.
The Department for Transport is providing £64 million for the East London line extension and other transport improvements. The Mayor and TfL will contribute £15 million towards the cost of the scheme.
It follows long negotiations over the funding of the project.
Mr Johnson said: "This is tremendous news. We can finally get cracking on a vital section of track that will orbitise our Overground rail services.
"I promised Londoners that where funds were made available we would build the improvements they need.
"And it will be a real achievement when our Overground services are fully oysterised. I am delighted a long hard slog of negotiations between ourselves and the Department of Transport has borne fruit that will result in a superb new service for thousands of Londoners."
Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy said: "The East London line extension will deliver a key rail link south of the river and improve local transport for Londoners by providing more choice and better access to other parts of the capital."
"The extension to Clapham Junction will provide significantly improved access to the City and Docklands and will allow us to extend the high standards provided on our existing London Overground network - staff at all stations, Oyster pay as you go, and frequent services - to south Londoners."
Reader views (23)
The extension to SW London seems to be about linking commuters from the leafy suburbs and Clapham to the city.
Expensive though access to the high level station at Loughborough Junction would be, it's omission is immoral - it's desparately in need of regeneration. The omission of a stop at Brixton makes no sense at all.
- Peter Kelly, Tulse Hill, 30/04/2009 01:40
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Agree with the missed opportunity of linking a station at Brixton. Perhaps even more useful would have been to link to Liverpool street, which would give accees to a major underground and overground hub. As it is the ability to go from Brockley to Dalston may not turn out to be all that useful...
- Paul Booton, Londres, United Kingdom, 21/04/2009 15:31
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This line doesn't, and never will, go to Docklands. People will still need to change for the Jubilee line.
- Mike, Stockwell, London, 17/02/2009 08:43
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The link to London Bridge is being withdrawn to allow the major upgrade at London Bridge connected with the Thameslink 2000!! project to go ahead.
There will only be a few passengers affected while for some Shoreditch High Street Station will be better located than London Bridge, the big outstanding question for this station is whether a station on the Central Line which runs underneath this area will ever be built?
As for Orbirail Services at present no plans to run circle line type services have been developed and the question is how much will it cost in rail and train costs to develop this into a reality?
As for the South London Line the question is when will Oyster arrive and hopefully it wont have to wait until these works are complete?
The longer term question needs to be where next for Overground services - I would put the Watford DC service in a new underground station at Euston and then extend it to Charing Cross/Waterloo to allow Thameslink 2 to be created. This would release space in Euston Station for High Speed Rail Services as St Pancras is full!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 16/02/2009 16:13
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Ditto the comments by Andy M (not actually a new line) . . . . . but in these times, I'll take it. It's truly a shame that the train will pass THROUGH Brixton but not stop there - what a joke! That would have truly put the route on the Underground system. Surely people will moan enough about it and a station will get put in??? Maybe not. I've also heard that a North Battersea station is being discussed - but as for funding........
- Andrew, London, Battersea, 16/02/2009 07:38
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It looks like Streatham gets missed out again!
It would appear that as the NEW link will deliver "a key rail link south of the river" the residents of Streatham and nearby areas have once again been deemed to be virtually irrelevant!
Residents in Streatham have been waiting over 20 years for the promised Victoria Line Tube extension and now yet another "slap in the face" with being ignored for this important overground extension. No wonder the residents of Streatham and surrounding areas are returning to their cars as over-crowded uncomfortable buses requiring 2 or 3 changes certainly is NOT a viable option long-term!
- Fraser, Telford Park, 13/02/2009 10:47
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Please don't describe it as a new line - it really isn't.
There is a few hundred yards of new track around Surrey Canal Road, the rest of it is there already - including all the stations. Currently trains on this route connect Victoria and London Bridge. These trains are being withdrawn and replaced with ones that run from Clapham to Dalston instead. There will still only be 4 trains per hour (admittedly more than the 2 per hour now, but hardly tube frequency). And the chance to properly connect south London has been missed by the complete failure to add stations at Brixton and Loughborough Junction - even though this track runs right over the top of both of those existing stations.
So BoJo and GeHo can try to sell this as a wonderful new railway all they like. The reality is that it is the same rubbish old railway that's always been there, but which has been redirected to go somewhere even less useful instead.
- Andy M, London, UK, 13/02/2009 10:31
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V Pleased that the extension has been finally approved; it is just a pity that it has taken so long. Roll on the Cross river tram service.
- M.Brown, London, 12/02/2009 22:43
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Why not use the low level line at Brixton Station and leave the high level bridge for the South London Line Victoria to London Bridge. The low level line also goes to Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, etc. and by installing a few points it can still link up with Clapham and Wandsworth Road just north of Brixton Station. This idea will save £thousands as only the platforms at Brixton would need extending and some form of access provided to them. No need to build a separate station at high level above the existing Brixton station.
Has anyone considered this???
- Angry Of Alton, Alton UK, 12/02/2009 22:24
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This is great news - and should really help with what's currently a public transport desert in the Peckham area. £79 million may sound a lot, but it's a pittance when you're talking rail projects - this scheme is such good value for money, that it's surprising this didn't happen earlier.
- David, London, 12/02/2009 16:52
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Here he goes again. Another one of Ken's ideas he is claiming as his own.
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa, Spain, 12/02/2009 15:11
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It's great news apart from the lack of a station at Brixton. Seeing as it's one of the major transport interchanges in south London, its a crazy omission.
- Tony B, london, 12/02/2009 14:57
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Good news. This was the one Livingstone project that shouldn't have been cut - good to see it reinstated.
Extra stations could be added later. (The Hammersmith and City line got a new one at Wood lane, without shutting the line down while it was built. It's even easier if space for them is reserved in advance).
I trust it'll come with an upgrade to the (unbelievably slow) Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction line, to create a complete Overground Outer Circle line?
- Nigel, London, 12/02/2009 13:13
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After being "oysterised" and "orbitised", I wonder what comes next. I wait with bated breath!
- Matt, london, 12/02/2009 12:52
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Completion date?
- Alan, London, 12/02/2009 12:20
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It's nice to see that Boris has had the brains to keep this project that his predecessor started, unlike all the other projects that he'd canned.
Still no station in Brixton though - it may cost £100m, but it is well needed.
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall, 12/02/2009 11:28
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The rail track for this line existed at one time. You can see it on maps of London at about 1940 -- which show a rail junction south of Surrey Quays and also that the line extended under the current London Bridge main line and joined the current London Bridge-to-Victoria Station line around Queens Road. A large amount of other now-gone rail track also existed in that same area. What goes around comes around. In the coming decades many of the rail lines that were cut in the Beeching mania will probably be back. The U.K. had the best rail system in the world in the period before BR, mainly thanks to private enterprise. Government, with its short-term thinking, decimated the system -- and stupidly sold off small parts of the rights-of-way where the lines entered into urban areas; you now see shopping malls sitting on the rights-of-way, which could have been preserved as walking paths. Railways still remain the most environmentally-friendly way to move huge numbers of people.
- Phil Jones, London UK, 12/02/2009 11:24
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thank goodness for that, it's only been a 12 year wait. But have they agreed on the new station at Surrey Canal Road ?
- Keith Turnbull, london, 12/02/2009 10:43
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Good. Taken them long enough, though - if this is how Boris does business we're in for a lot of thumb-twiddling. There's no plan for where we go next for Overground though - - given the history of this project and his general aversion to public transport I doubt Boris is interested in any further extensions, which is a great shame. Having the bulk of London's national rail services under local democratic control is just common sense.
- Tom, London, UK, 12/02/2009 10:33
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Fantastic. I was worried that funding would be cut along with the cross river bridges and tunnels that Bojo has axed that were planned for East London.
East London river crossings and new lines such as this can only help relieve the pressure at stations like London Bridge. Currently to travel from SE London/Lewisham borough (Greenwich, Blackheath, Brockley etc) to somewhere like Brixton or Herne Hill on public transport, people have no choice but to travel to Victoria or London Bridge, change trains and head back out again when in fact the journey is a mere 4 or 5 miles across south London. Buses go some way to helping but there aren't many routes that connect south London destinations and you often have to make several changes.
- London Biker, London, 12/02/2009 10:17
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Why is this made out to be a brilliant new piece of track? It's being built on the existing rail line connecting Victoria to London Bridge, people who currently use this line will now have to suffer re-routing and delays whilst the existing system is replaced, and then when the new system is in place have to change trains thus suffering more delays and longer journeys. It's yet another white elephant.
- Bob, Cheam, 12/02/2009 09:35
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The cost of these projects amazes me.
This is a simple project that has been on the drawing board for at least 25 years. The cuttings etc are already there, they just need to add a few bridges and lay some tracks, yet its going to cost £80m. I dobt even if it includes any compulsory purchases, the Victorians have already done the hard graft.
- George, London, 12/02/2009 09:29
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Brilliant news for transport starved south londoners!
Why not make it even better and make the new extension stop at Brixton as well. The line passes right through the old Brixton East station.
- Tim Guthrie, Brockley, London, 12/02/2009 09:28
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