East London Line Extensions

Connections from the East London Line onto the National Rail network at both ends using disused railway alignments will permit orbital services from Highbury to Clapham Jcn, Crystal Palace and Croydon.

The East London Line is currently being extended both north and south to link it into the overground rail network. Work is scheduled for completion by 2010 (much later than originally planned).

Transport for London will take over the ELL project from the Strategic Rail Authority this autumn, following the government's reorganisation of the railways.

It is important to note that no tunnelling work is being done. This will not be a "tube" line in the traditional sense - it just involves connections onto existing National Rail surface lines, with services running over these to new destinations.

The northern extension uses dismantled lines out of the old Broad Street station. Shoreditch Station will be closed, with the line diverted to a new station on Shoreditch High Street. Then line will then travel parallel to Kingsland Road with stations at Hoxton, Haggerston and Dalston (Phase 1). It will then join the North London Line to serve Canonbury and Highbury & Islington, where connections can be made to the Victoria Line (Phase 2).

A new bus station will be constructed at Dalston, the northern end of the Phase 1 extensions, to provide onward bus connections. This will be accompanied by a major London Development Agency redevelopment at Dalston. Further in the future, Crossrail 2 might come to Dalston.

The southern extension consists of two small links.

A small flyover will connect the existing line at New Cross Gate Station to the line out of London Bridge, serving all stations from here to both Crystal Palace and West Croydon (Phase 1). A new turnback siding will be constructed at West Croydon, and a platform will be reinstated at Crystal Palace.

The second link will be part of Phase 2. It will follow an old railway alignment from Surrey Quays past Millwall FC, with a station here at Surrey Canal Road. This branch will then follow the overground South London Line calling at Queens Rd Peckham, Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill, possibly Brixton (see later), Clapham High St, Wandsworth Rd and finally Clapham Junction. At Clapham Junction, the ELL would use platform 2, with platform 1 restored for use for Silverlink's West London Line services, making interchange between the two easy (at least more so than having them using platforms on the opposite sides of the station).

New Cross will continue to be served.

The extensions will be built in two phases. Phase 1 sees trains running between Dalston Junction in the north and New Cross, Crystal Palace and West Croydon in the south. Phase 2 includes the other branch to Clapham Junction in the south and the extension along the North London Line to Highbury & Islington in the north.

Funding arrangements have now been agreed for phase 1 which is scheduled to be in place for June 2010, comfortably before the possible Olympics in East London.

In phase 1, a 12tph service will operate between Dalston and Surrey Quays, with 4tph continuing onto each branch (New Cross, Crystal Palace, and West Croydon). This will mean 8tph will call at stations between Sydenham and New Cross Gate inclusive.

In phase 2, each of the 4 southern branches will get 4 trains per hour, combining to give 16tph on the central section between Surrey Quays and Dalston. Not all trains will continue from Dalston to Highbury. The suggested service pattern is:

The Phase 2 extension to Clapham Junction might take over from existing South London Line services, which currently run between Victoria and London Bridge. However, this might leave Wandsworth Road and Clapham High St without a service to central London, and those two stations plus Denmark Hill without a service to London Bridge. (Denmark Hill has services to Blackfriars and Victoria without the South London Line).

It is likely that some alternative stopping patterns for other services would come into effect to maintain a direct service to Victoria for the first two stations.

The East London Line is currently operated with 4-car trains from the Metropolitan Line. When the extensions are built, the extensive surface running on the National Rail network means that National Rail stock will be used. 19 4-car trains will be required for Phase 1.

These trains are likely to be similar to the Networkers used to operate trains out of Charing Cross & Cannon Street to the south eastern suburbs (i.e. full size trains), but will need end doors so that passengers can be detrained inside the ELL tunnels in an emergency.

Although this type of surface stock is larger than traditional Underground trains, it can fit through the ELL tunnels because the ELL was originally built (in 1876) with the aim of running through trains from Manchester to the continent, using the current Metropolitan line, Hammersmith & City line and East London line to get to Dover!

Rotherhithe has short platforms very close to the River Thames and it was being considered for closure up until very recently, when an announcement was made by the Mayor that Phase One of the ELL project will keep Rotherhithe open.

This is because 4-car trains will operate for Phase 1 - the same length as current trains, and the maximum length that will fit into existing short platforms at Rotherhithe, Wapping and Canada Water.

If Rotherhithe were to close for Phase 2, it could easily be served by opening a new northern exit at nearby Canada Water station.

Wapping was also considered problematic but has recently been added to the business case for the scheme, and again the Mayor announced that Phase One would include Wapping.

If longer trains are used in the future, the future of Rotherhithe and Wapping will again come into consideration. Difficult reconstruction work would also be required at Canada Water, where platforms are short as they are located on a gradient.

Two new stations on Phase Two are just possibilities. Brixton has no platforms on the South London line (the route to be taken between Peckham and Clapham) - but these could be built, given that Brixton is a very busy bus/tube interchange station. There used to be a station at East Brixton but this is some distance from the existing Brixton station.

Unfortunately, since the station at Brixton would be located on a brick viaduct, the cost would be high - around £50m-60m for this station alone.

Loughborough Junction is a less likely possibility. The South London Line passes very close to this station, which could provide useful interchange with Thameslink services between Sutton/Wimbledon, the City and King's Cross.

This is part of a proposed orbital rail franchise combining this, the North London Line, West London Line and "GOBLIN" (Gospel Oak to Barking).

As part of future developments, the London Plan mentions two possible stations on the ELLX - one near Battersea Power Station (presumably just across the road from Queenstown Road (Battersea) station served by South West Trains) and another within the Bishopsgate goods yard for development there.

Potential does exist at Shoreditch High St for an interchange with the Central Line which passes underneath it - but Central Line platforms would be expensive and would increase journey times for all Central Line passengers between east London and the City. It could only be justified if anticipated traffic levels were high enough.

Although the ELLX will initially be opened as far as Highbury & Islington, there is scope for extension to Willesden Junction via Camden Road, then using the Primrose Hill link from there to the West Coast Main Line at South Hampstead, and continuing via Queens Park to Willesden Junction "DC" platforms.

Reopening Primrose Hill station would therefore be possible for the use of ELLX services. Primrose Hill is a short walk from Chalk Farm station on the Northern Line.

The East London Line project group aim for improvements for 2016. These include adding destinations (Finsbury Park from Canonbury, Wimbledon & Streatham from Peckham Rye, and the afore-mentioned Willesden Junction extension from Highbury). A subsequent frequency increase would occur on the central section - up by 4tph to 20tph between Dalston and Surrey Quays.

The ELL extension project has been officially transferred from the Strategic Rail Authority to Transport for London, who, the Mayor said, will deliver it to the first phase of its completion by June 2010. Phase 1 runs to Dalston in the north and Croydon and Crystal Palace in the south.

The Mayor is as keen for phase 2 of the East London Line extensions to go ahead as he is for the approved phase 1. The Mayor believes that as long as a continuous level of funding is provided by government, the second phase can progress with funding from TfL's next spending reviews, either in 2006 or 2008.

On 13 Nov 04, the East London Line extension project team will transfer from the SRA to TfL, as the Mayor will be delivering the first phase of the project as part of his £10bn investment programme.

The East London Line extensions are finally set to be built as the government gives Transport for London borrowing powers for this and several other smaller projects.

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, is expected in this week's Comprehensive Spending Review to give the go-ahead to Mayor Ken Livingstone to borrow £1.1bn to finance the East London Line extensions.

Criticism of the "creaking" transport system in London by the International Olympic Committee has prompted calls by mayoral candidates Ken Livingstone and Steve Norris to Transport Secretary Alastair Darling to secure funding for the project so that construction can start - otherwise London's Olympic bid will fail.

On Tuesday, GLA member Val Shawcross presented a 2,300 signature petition to the Mayor, asking for the London Development Agency to investigate the case for platforms at Loughborough Junction to be constructed for the ELL extensions.

Deputy Mayor and Green Party member Jenny Jones has called for priority to be given to the recently-delayed £1bn East London Line project over the £12bn Crossrail scheme, saying that economic benefits should be spread around inner London rather than concentrated in the centre.

Due to wrangling over the cost of the £1bn East London Line project, the project team will announce this week that the project cannot be open until 2010 - 4 years later than originally planned. The DfT has ordered the ELL project team to investigate cost-saving measures, including construction of the extensions in stages.

According to the Mayor's magazine The Londoner, the East London Line extensions would divert 5,000 rush hour passengers each from Waterloo and London Bridge stations onto ELL services, and 6,500 fewer passengers would get onto the Jubilee line at these stations as a result (presumably using Canada Water instead). [Note the link is a large PDF file.]