The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will today (16 February) ensure the last rail is put firmly in place in the final link of the London Overground orbital network as he marks the completion of the track laying phase of the project.
London Overground already carries two million people every week linking north, west and east London with frequent and reliable services and well lit and staffed stations. The new extension across south London will complete the network, providing a brand new link between Surrey Quays in the south east and Clapham Junction in the south west.
Fifty-six new jobs will be created in the running of the new service, in addition to the 1000 who have been employed in designing and building the new link. The new line will also put 125,000 more jobs within an hour’s travel from south east London stations such as Peckham Rye and bring opportunity and investment to this previously under served area of south east London.
Once complete, passengers on the line will benefit from a four trains per hour service. The next phase of the project will be electrification, followed by testing. The extension is expected to be up and running by the end of the year.
The new £75million link is being made possible in part through £60million from the Department of Transport, which was negotiated by the Mayor and confirmed in 2009.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “London Overground is already one of the most reliable and popular railways in the UK, and South London deserves a piece of that. Thanks to the neo-Victorian levels of investment we are putting into London’s infrastructure, the people of Southwark, Lewisham, Lambeth and Wandsworth will be linked, for the first time, to every other corner of this city; and have access to a turn up and go metro service that will brings jobs, opportunities, growth and prosperity to this previously under served area of London.”
The Mayor will tighten a clip fixing the last rail in place on a 1.3km section of new railway which will link London Overground to existing track leading to Clapham Junction.
The route will see four trains an hour calling at all stations between Dalston Junction and Surrey Quays, then Queens Road Peckham, Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill, Clapham High Street and Wandsworth Road before terminating at Clapham Junction. From there, London Overground services run north to Willesden Junction and beyond.
The new link is just one element of the largest investment in London’s transport network for more than fifty years, which includes a huge programme of upgrade work on the Tube and rail networks.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
- The extension is scheduled to open by the end of 2012.
- The 1.3km link visited by the Mayor today is laid on a disused railway route which until 1911 was used by trains from Rotherhithe to Peckham via the now-defunct Old Kent Road Railway station
- In addition to building the new link, extensive upgrade and refurbishment work is being undertaken on the Grants Rd entrance and on platforms 1 and 2 at Clapham Junction station
- Services through the core section of the East London route – Surrey Quays station to Dalston Junction - will be increased to 16 trains per hour when the extension opens.
- As a result of the London Overground extension to Clapham, it is estimated that 120,000 more jobs will be within 60 minutes travel of Denmark Hill
- The services are expected to be used by 12.3 million passengers per annum. The line is expected to be well used by passengers travelling westwards towards Clapham Junction and eastbound towards Docklands and the City during peak periods.