THE EAST LONDON LINE


Click on station for photographs taken on
the last day of public service - 22.12.2007

On Saturday 22nd December 2007 railway services on the East London Line were suspended for the line's conversion to become part of the London Overground system.

The East London line is currently being extended in two phases. In Phase 1, due to be completed by June 2010, it is being extended northwards from Whitechapel to Highbury & Islington and south to Crystal Palace and West Croydon. Phase 2 will extend the line west to Clapham Junction but is unlikely to receive approval before 2012 and would probably not be completed much before 2015.

In phase 1 of the extension project, new stations will be provided at Shoreditch High Street, Hoxton, Haggerston and Dalston Junction. A further extension along the North London Line, going through Canonbury with passenger services terminating at Highbury & Islington for interchange with the Victoria line, North London line and Northern City Line will open soon afterwards. The line would continue to stabling tracks just beyond Caledonian Road & Barnsbury station. The northern extension will require only 3.6 km of new trackbed to be constructed, which

will link Whitechapel to the Broad Street viaduct, as existing but disused trackbeds will be used for most of the distance.

Shoreditch closed permanently in June 2006. The new tracks will diverge before the closed Shoreditch station, traverse the former site of the Bishopsgate Goods Yard, before running north along the Broad Street Viaduct. A new Shoreditch station will be located near to Shoreditch High Street. Statutory planning powers for the extension were granted in January 1997.

Early in the project's life mention was made of the possibility of further extending the line from Highbury & Islington, to Finsbury Park to the north, and Willesden Junction to the west, by way of Camden Road, Primrose Hill and Queen's Park, following the above-ground Network Rail North London Line tracks. This was known as the Mayor's Orbirail project. These ideas are not in the present project. The project's web site states that Finsbury Park is omitted because of operational complexity and says that the Willesden Junction branch could be considered as a separate project in the future. Source of text: Wikipedia.

See also Shoreditch

Two A Class trains wait at Shadwell on 22nd December 2007
P
hoto by Nick Catford

 

 

 

[Source: Nick Catford]


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