Government green lights Northern line extension

The Secretary of State for Transport has approved the extension of London Underground’s Northern line to Battersea.

Having been given the green light, work will now start on the new line, which will link Battersea with Kennington via Nine Elms, in spring 2015 and the line could be open by 2020.

Ferrovial Agroman Laing O’Rourke was awarded the main £500 million construction contract for the project in the summer.

The extension will create a new Tube station at the site of a major new commercial and residential development at Battersea Power Station, cutting journey times into the City to 15 minutes.

London Underground (LU) says the £1 billion will be funded entirely by private development companies.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “I am delighted we can confirm that early next year the spades will be hitting the ground for the creation of the Northern line extension.

“Driven by improved transport links this part of central London is set to move forward a century in a matter of a few years, supporting 24,000 new jobs and more than 18,000 new homes.

“The benefits of major infrastructure projects such as this are enormous – cutting journey times for passengers, supporting London’s future growth and creating jobs right across the UK.”

Earlier this year, the project’s head Graeme Shaw said that TfL will initially operate 10 to 16 trains an hour on the new line. Eventually, 28 trains an hour will serve the extension.

A modernisation of the Northern line’s signalling system will boost capacity by 20 per cent from December and by 2020, LU is planning to increase train frequencies on the Northern line “to at least” 30 trains per hour with the introduction of new trains.