Public attention and debate has largely shifted south these days with regards to construction on the ELL. There, all tenders have now been received for the ELLX2 work, with a decision on who the work will be awarded to due in January next year.
It is easy to forget, however, that there is still some work to be completed up north. East London Line Extension Phase 1a – the extension of the line to Highbury & Islington – has been underway now for some time, and according to most accounts is firmly on schedule. Sources suggest that March is currently the most likely opening date for this section of line.
The photos below give a good idea of the state of works at several key points – notably in and around the Boleyn Road Bridge and Kingsland High Street.
Both Credit and thanks for these images to John Sturrock.
When the East London Line extension project was proposed there were northern extensions to Finsbury Park and Willesden Junction. Trying to discover what happened to them is being swamped with ELLX progress as built. (Really they would have been NLLX).
The Plan was titled East London Line Extensions – first for the new millenium
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.
Some services along this route would already have been introduced (between Queen’s Park and Stratford) as part of the Orbirail plans.
New destinations
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, with those extra trains heading to Wimbledon via Streatham.
To reach Finsbury Park, the platform layout would need to be altered, and these trains would not be able to serve Highbury & Islington. To reach Wimbledon, a new platform would have to be built for Tramlink so that the current Tramlink platform could be used by the ELL.
Are there any feasibility assessments to reference?