East London, city (1991 pop. 240,474), Eastern Cape, SE South Africa, on the Indian Ocean. The city grew around a British military post founded in 1847. Its harbor was developed from 1886, and today it is a leading South African port. The main exports are corn, wool, and fruit. East London's manufactures include automobiles, furniture, textiles, clothing, footwear, processed food, and glass. East London is a rail hub, providing a link to the goldfields of Free State. There is a large fishing industry. The city is also a popular seaside resort. East London Museum and a technical college are in the city.

The East London Line was a line of the London Underground, coloured orange on the Tube map. It ran north to south through the East End and Docklands areas of London, entirely in Travelcard Zone 2. It closed on 22 December 2007 for construction work, replaced by bus services.

As part of Transport for London's £10 billion investment programme, the East London Line is being extended. The new extended line will open in 2010, as the East London Railway, and as part of the London Overground network. The line will change from a minor stub to a key transport artery, an orbital railway linking London's suburbs.

Opened in 1869 as the East London Railway, it runs under the Thames through the Thames Tunnel, which was the oldest part of the Underground's infrastructure. The line was originally operated jointly by six different railway companies (later reduced to two) and became part of the London Underground in 1933. Of the eight stations, four are below ground.

History

Establishment of the East London Railway

The East London Railway was created by the East London Railway Company, a consortium of six railway companies: the Great Eastern Railway (GER); London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR); London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR); South Eastern Railway (SER); Metropolitan Railway; and the Metropolitan District Railway, the last two of which operated what are now the Metropolitan line, Circle line, District line and Hammersmith & City line of the London Underground.

The companies sought to reuse the Thames Tunnel, built by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel between 1825 and 1843. The tunnel was built for horse-drawn carriages and so had generous headroom, with two separate carriageways separated by arches, though it was only used for pedestrian traffic. It connected Wapping on the north bank of the Thames with Rotherhithe on the south bank. Although it was a triumph of civil engineering, it was a commercial failure and by the 1860s it had become an unpleasant and disreputable place.

The tunnel was the most easterly land connection between the north and south banks of the Thames. It was close to London's docks on both banks of the river and was not far from mainline railways at either end. Converting the tunnel to a railway thus offered an ideal means of providing a cross-Thames rail link without having to go to the great expense of boring a new tunnel. On 25 September 1865, the East London Railway Company took ownership of the Thames Tunnel at a cost of £800,000. Over the next four years the company constructed a railway line running through the tunnel to connect with existing railway lines.

The line's development progressed in several stages as money became available:

• 7 December 1869: Initial line from New Cross Gate (then known as New Cross) to Wapping opened, operated by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). Intermediate stations were opened at Deptford Road (now Surrey Quays) and Rotherhithe
• 13 March 1871: A spur was opened from just south of what is now Surrey Quays tube station to the South London Line's Old Kent Road railway station. Services were withdrawn in 1911 and the track was subsequently removed.
• 19 April 1876: Wapping to Shoreditch opened, running through a cut-and-cover tunnel constructed in part along the bottom of a now infilled dock. At Shoreditch a connection was made with the Great Eastern Railway to Liverpool St. Intermediate stations were opened at Shadwell and Whitechapel
• 1 April 1880: A spur to New Cross (South Eastern Railway) opened.
• 3 March 1884: A spur linking the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways to the East London Railway opened south of Whitechapel. This enabled Metropolitan Railway and Metropolitan District Railway (District) trains to commence through services to the East London Railway later that year. Although passenger services via this spur ceased in 1941, it was retained to transfer empty trains between the East London line and the rest of the sub-surface network.

Early utilisation

The East London Railway Company owned the infrastructure but it was operated by its controlling railways. Steam trains were initially operated by the GER, LB&SCR and the SER. The LB&SCR used their LBSCR A1 Class Terrier locomotives, which William Stroudley designed partly with this line in mind. It carried both passenger and goods trains; the LB&SCR operated between Liverpool Street and Croydon, the SER introducing a service between Addiscombe and Liverpool Street from April 1880 until March 1884. From March to September 1884 the SER service ran from Addiscombe to St Mary's (MR & MDR Joint Station). Metropolitan Railway services from St Mary's to New Cross (SER) and Metropolitan District Railway services from St Mary's to New Cross (LB&SCR) commenced on 1st October 1884. On 6th October through services commenced from Hammersmith (Hammersmith & City) to New Cross (SER) and from Hammersmith (MDR) to New Cross (LB&SCR).

Before the development of the Kent coalfields in the early part of the twentieth century, house coal from the north for distribution in south London and as far afield as Maidstone and Brighton was an important source of revenue. Access at the north end of the line was difficult: trains were limited to 26 wagons and had to be shunted into the Great Eastern's Liverpool Street Station and then drawn forward onto the East London line. From October 1900 additional capacity was offered by a wagon lift, carrying two ten-ton wagons, from the Great Eastern coal depot at Spitalfields to a siding on the ELR near Whitechapel station. The surface junction was taken up in 1966 and the lift closed in 1967, after a fire at the Spitalfields depot.

When the Metropolitan and District Railways were electrified in 1905-1906 they ceased using the ELR; LB&SCR and GER services continued and SER services recommenced on 3rd December 1906. The line was electrified on 31 March 1913, with the controlling railways funding the upgrade and the Metropolitan Railway providing the rolling stock. Electric services ran from the two southern termini to Shoreditch and South Kensington via Edgware Road and High Street Kensington. In 1914 the service to South Kensington was diverted to Hammersmith.

After the 1923 Grouping the goods service was operated by London and North Eastern Railway, with the Metropolitan Railway continuing to provide passenger services.

The London Underground era

In 1933 the East London Railway came under the control of the London Passenger Transport Board. Although the infrastructure was still privately owned, passenger services along the line were operated under the auspices of the "East London Branch" of the Metropolitan Line. In 1948 the railways were nationalised and became part of the newly created British Transport Commission along with the Underground. Goods services continued to use the line until 1962, occasional passenger trains from Liverpool Street until 1966. The short length of track connecting Shoreditch to Liverpool St was removed in 1966. The service to Shoreditch was also reduced, with Whitechapel becoming the northern terminus for much of the time; by the time Shoreditch station closed in 2006, it was open at peak times on weekdays, most of Sundays (for Brick Lane Market) and closed on Saturdays.

Westbound services were steadily curtailed during the early part of the Underground era. The service to Hammersmith was reduced to peak hours only in 1936 and was withdrawn altogether in 1941, leaving the East London branch as an isolated appendage on the edge of the Underground network. Its only passenger interchange to the Underground was at Whitechapel, with interchanges to main line trains at the two New Cross stations. In the 1980s and 1990s the line gained two important new connections: Shadwell became an interchange with the Docklands Light Railway in 1987, and a new station was added at Canada Water in 1999 for interchange with the Jubilee line.

The identity of the East London line changed considerably during the London Underground era. On Tube maps between 1933 and 1968 it was depicted in the same colour as the Metropolitan line. In 1970 it was renamed the "Metropolitan Line - East London Section", in Metropolitan line purple with a white stripe down the middle. In the 1980s it was renamed as a line in its own right (though it was still grouped operationally with the Metropolitan line) and from 1990 the colour changed to the present orange.

The maintenance of the line passed to the Metronet consortium in 2003 under a Public-Private Partnership, although the operation of trains continued to be the responsibility of TfL.

According to TfL, the line carried 10.702 million passengers per year before its temporary closure in 2007.

Physical characteristics

The East London line was the only Underground line not to enter Travelcard Zone 1. It was the second-shortest line (after the Waterloo & City line), with an end-to-end journey time of 14 minutes. Its length was 9 km (5 miles), with nine stations. At the time of its closure in 2007 it ran in a continuous tunnel from Whitechapel to Surrey Quays, with the remainder on the surface or in cutting. Much of the line is constructed in the cut-and-cover fashion that is typical of London's sub-surface railways. The deepest point is at Wapping station, constructed in the Thames Tunnel's original entrance shaft 18.29 m (60 ft) below the surface.

At time of closure, the line connected with Southeastern mainline services at New Cross and Southern at New Cross Gate. Underground connections were at Canada Water (Jubilee Line) and Whitechapel (District Line). A non-contiguous connection with the Docklands Light Railway was at Shadwell, with a separate DLR station some 50 m (150 ft) away. Although the interchange was via the street, through ticketing was permitted at time of closure in 2007.

A link with the Metropolitan and District lines still exists just south of Whitechapel via the St Mary's Curve. This has been out of passenger use since 1941 but was still used to transfer rolling stock to and from the Metropolitan line's main depot at Neasden. The curve can easily be seen on the northbound and eastbound approaches to Whitechapel station, although a temporary wall was built across the line in January 2008, close to the junction with the District line.

Most of the line is double-tracked, with Shoreditch station and the final sections into the southern termini single-tracked, the latter because of lack of space. This required southbound trains to alternate between the two termini.

Rolling stock

The East London line used Metropolitan line A60 and A62 sub-surface rolling stock manufactured by Cravens of Sheffield in two batches between 1960 and 1962. It was upgraded in 1994 with improved suspension, lighting, heating and ventilation. The rolling stock was regularly interchanged with that used on the main Metropolitan line and usually carried both East London and Metropolitan line maps.

Five four-car trains operated the line, some of the shortest trains on the network, necessitated by short platforms. The small number of trains made the line particularly sensitive to disruption caused by vandalism or train faults, as the withdrawal of a single train amounted to a 20% cut in capacity — the Metropolitan line would have to lose nine trains to suffer the same percentage cut. Trains were operated by just a driver: the decision to withdraw the guards prompted an unsuccessful strike by the National Union of Railwaymen in May 1985.

Light maintenance and stabling took place at a small depot near New Cross, with heavier work at the main Metropolitan line depot at Neasden. Between 1985 and 1987 D78 stock operated the line before being replaced by A60 and A62 stock again.

New rolling stock

As part of the upgrade of the East London line new rolling stock will replace the A Stock, which will be 50 years old by the time Phase 1 is complete in 2010. It was announced on 31 August 2006 that Bombardier has been selected to provide 20 four-car units for the East London line and 24 dual-voltage three-car units for the North London Line. The contract is worth £223 million. On 4 July 2007 it was announced that the order had been increased by adding an extra car to the dual-voltage units and an extra three trains for the East London line at a cost of £36 million. The trains are based on the Electrostar design and are outwardly similar to the Class 376 stock in operation in southeast England.

Rail replacement bus services

On 10 June 2006 the following rail replacement bus service was introduced:

• ELS Whitechapel - Shoreditch (Monday-Friday 0700-1030 & 1530-2030, Sunday 0700-1530). Withdrawn on 19 July 2008 and replaced by a peak hour extension of route ELW.

On Sunday 23 December 2007 three further services were introduced:

• ELC New Cross Gate - New Cross - Surrey Quays - Canada Water (Monday-Friday every 5-10 minutes, weekends every 15 minutes).
• ELP Canada Water - Rotherhithe (every 15 minutes). Withdrawn on 24 February 2008 due to lack of use: tickets are valid between Bermondsey and Canada Water on standard route 381.
• ELW Whitechapel - Shadwell - Wapping (every 10 minutes, evenings & weekends 15 minutes). Extended from Whitechapel to Shoredtich (Monday-Friday 0700-1030 & 1530-2030, Sunday 0700-1530) from 19 July 2008.

There is no cross-river replacement bus service.

Stations

In order from north to south

• Shoreditch - opened 10 April1876, first Underground services 31 March 1913, closed 9 June 2006.
• Whitechapel - ELR station opened 10 April1876, first Underground services at ELR platforms 31 March 1913. Interchange with District Line and Hammersmith & City Line.
• Shadwell - opened 10 April1876, first Underground services 1 October 1884. Interchange with Docklands Light Railway.
• Wapping - opened 7 December1869, first Underground services 1 October 1884.
• Rotherhithe - opened 7 December1869, first Underground services 1 October 1884.
• Canada Water - opened 17 September 1999. Interchange with Jubilee line.
• Surrey Quays - opened as Deptford Road 7 December1869, first Underground services 1 October 1884, renamed Surrey Docks in 1911.
• line splits
• New Cross Gate - ELL platform opened 7 December1869, first Underground services 1 October 1884. Interchange with Southern mainline services (mainline station was opened as New Cross in 1839, and renamed 1923).
• New Cross - ELL platform opened 1 April1880, first Underground services 1 October 1884. Interchange with Southeastern mainline services (mainline station was opened in 1850).

Extensions

The East London line is currently being extended in two phases. In Phase 1, due to be completed by June 2010, is northwards from Whitechapel to Highbury & Islington, and south to Crystal Palace and West Croydon. Phase 2, approved but reportedly only partially funded so far runs west to Clapham Junction. According to Transport Briefings, London Mayor Boris Johnson "has said he will lobby for projects including the East London Line Phase 2 extension". In 2007 MP Martin Linton claimed that with funding Phase 2 could be completed by 2012.

Proposals and problems

Extensions of the East London line have been discussed for many years. During the 1980s London Transport considered converting it into a light railway similar to the Docklands Light Railway, or restoring the connection to Liverpool Street. By 1989 a proposal had emerged to extend it north to Dalston and south to Dulwich and Peckham Rye, sharing track and stations with the mainline network, as on parts of the Bakerloo Line, District line and Metropolitan line. The plan was costed at £100-£120 million and the extended line was envisaged to open in 1994.

The extension project was proposed several times during the 1990s but repeatedly fell through owing to a lack of government support and insufficient financing. In November 1990 Transport Secretary Cecil Parkinson rejected a proposed parliamentary Bill that would have authorised the project and two years later the extension plans were postponed indefinitely owing to cutbacks in Tube funding. Another proposal was made in 1993 and received the support of a public inquiry in 1994. The project was finally approved by the Government in 1996 but a lack of financing again forced the project to be put on hold in 1997.

A solution to the funding issue was found in 1999 when London Transport announced that it was seeking private funds to realise the extension plans. Control of the project was given to the Strategic Rail Authority rather than to London Underground, in view of the impact that it would have on mainline services. It was also proposed that the East London line and other sub-surface Underground lines would be transferred to Railtrack, the privatised company responsible for maintaining the mainline network. This would have seen the line being integrated with the London suburban commuter network. However, it was soon decided that this was impractical and the Railtrack proposal was abandoned.

Commencement of project

After the Government gave the go-ahead on 9 October 2001 on the basis of the line being funded through the Private Finance Initiative, the construction of the northern extension was due to begin in December 2001. However, it was held up when it came to light that the Grade II listed 19th-century Braithwaite arches in the former Bishopsgate Goods Yard were to be demolished as part of the project. Campaigners launched legal action against London Underground in an effort to prevent the demolition, but the project finally received legal clearance in the Court of Appeal on 7 July 2003. It is now anticipated that the northerly extension to Dalston should open in 2010 (in February 2008 the work was due for completion on 19 October 2009, which is ahead of schedule), in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics being held in London, a time-scale confirmed by the project team in January 2006. As part of the work for the extension, the line will be closed for up to 30 months from December 2007, opening by June 2010.

This triple extension project is the first London Underground project to be funded through a Private Finance Initiative scheme, though the recent Jubilee Line Extension project was funded through a similar Public-Private Partnership scheme. The project will cost some £600 million and is projected to yield £10 billion in economic regeneration. It is still not entirely certain whether it will be completed, as the Treasury has not yet confirmed the full funding.

Because of an inability to extend the platforms at the existing Wapping and Rotherhithe stations and make them fully compliant with current rail safety regulations, it was thought that they would close, but on 18 August 2004 Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, announced that both stations will remain open, at least when Phase 1 of the project opens by June 2010.

On 12 October 2004 the Mayor formally confirmed that phase one of the East London Line Project would be delivered as part of the Capital Investment programme. On 16 November 2004 he announced that control of the project had passed from the Strategic Rail Authority to TfL, so that the project could be initiated and funded from TfL's five-year investment programme. The planned service was initially described as a "metro-style (National Rail) train service". On 5 September 2006 it was announced that the line would form part of the London Overground, branded with a version of the familiar Underground roundel, replacing the red roundel with orange (the colour in which the East London line currently appears on Tube maps).

It is expected that the extension will greatly increase the usage of the line. The current figure of 10.4 million passengers per year is expected to increase to 35.4 million when the first phase of the extension project is completed, and 50 million when both phases are finished.

On 23 October 2006, it was announced that a consortium comprising Balfour Beatty and Carillion had been selected to carry out the northern and southern extensions between West Croydon, Crystal Palace and Dalston Junction in a contract worth £363 million ($617 million).

Apart from the Braithwaite arches, the route of the northern extension was uncontroversial, as it reused the disused viaduct to the former Broad Street station. In contrast, the southerly route across south London's existing network of suburban railways underwent many changes. The initial 1999 proposal listed four options, all starting south of Surrey Quays:

• through Forest Hill to West Croydon, with a spur from Sydenham to Crystal Palace, the selected route;
• through East Dulwich and Tooting to Wimbledon;
• through Denmark Hill to Clapham Junction;
• through Forest Hill and Norwood Junction to West Croydon.

Northern extension

In phase 1, the line is being extended northwards from Whitechapel, with new stations at Shoreditch High Street, Hoxton, Haggerston and Dalston Junction. A further extension along the North London Line, through Canonbury to Highbury & Islington for interchange with the Victoria line, North London Line and Northern City Line will open soon afterwards. The northern extension will require only 3.6 km of new trackbed, linking Whitechapel to the Broad Street viaduct, using existing disused trackbeds for most of the distance.

Shoreditch closed permanently in June 2006. The new line will diverge before the closed Shoreditch station, traverse the former site of the Bishopsgate Goods Yard and bridging Shoreditch High Street, before running north along the Broad Street viaduct. A new Shoreditch station will be in Bethnal Green Road very near Shoreditch High Street. Statutory planning powers for the extension were granted in January 1997.

In mid-April 2008 the main structure of the bridge over Shoreditch High Street was complete. The ground on the approaches to the bridge had been largely cleared and significant sections of the approach viaducts had been built. The building of the station was at a very early stage.

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, through Camden Road, Primrose Hill and Queen's Park, along the above-ground Network Rail (now London Overground) North London Line. 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 that the Willesden Junction branch could be considered as a separate project in the future. The present track plans show the ELL and NLL separated, without the possibility of through running.

Southern extension

In phase 1, the line will also be extended with a northbound flyover north of New Cross Gate to the London Bridge arm of the Brighton Main Line, through Brockley, Honor Oak Park, Forest Hill, Sydenham, Penge West, Crystal Palace (by way of a branch), Anerley, Norwood Junction to West Croydon. Beyond the construction of a train servicing facility and flyover at New Cross Gate, little work will be needed to achieve this. Both of these plans were approved in October 2001.

There was some campaigning for this extension to go further, to Sutton, but estimates indicated that passenger usage would be so great that the line would be unable to take much traffic north of West Croydon and this option was not adopted.

The stations from New Cross Gate south are currently managed by Southern, and some may be transferred to TfL control as part of the extension project.

Western extension

In phase 2 of the extension project, a 2.5 km (1.5 mi) link is planned from south of Surrey Quays to the Network Rail South London Line to Clapham Junction, by way of Queens Road Peckham, Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill, Clapham High Street and Wandsworth Road. This would be on a disused alignment which until 1911 was used by trains from Rotherhithe to Peckham via the now defunct Old Kent Road station. A new station at Surrey Canal Road would be built. There are campaigns for new stations at Brixton and North Battersea.

Initially it was planned to run this line via East Dulwich to Wimbledon, but this part of the plan has been shelved, probably permanently. In July 2006, the Government warned that this £250 million phase was unlikely to be approved before 2012; it is currently unfunded.

Transfer to London Overground

When the extended line reopens, it will be part of London Overground rather than London Underground, having been rebuilt to Network Rail standards. The existing track and the Northern extension will remain under TfL ownership and the stations from Dalston Junction to Surrey Quays will be part of the London Overground network.

Controversy

The radical changes to the line have sparked fierce debate. In September 2006, union activists protested against the Mayor of London. They said that this was a renewal of plans of effectively privatising the London Underground, although the Mayor dismissed these claims.

External links

• East London line - London Underground website
• Clive's Underground Line Guides: East London line
• Thames foot tunnels
• East London line Project (official home page)
• East London line extensions map
• Transport Briefing Updates on East and North London Line developments
• East London Line addon for the train simulator BVE
• Official suspension notice
• The Brunel Museum - the museum is in the building in Rotherhithe that contained the pumps to keep the Thames Tunnel dry.
• ELL route through Shoreditch

References

Various sources have been used in the creation of this article, including the external links above, email conversations with the ELL Project Team and East London Line.