Two new stations on the Northern Line Extension

The Northern line extension opened on 20 September 2021, providing the fast, high capacity transport link needed to support the increase in the number of residents and businesses based in the Battersea and Nine Elms area.

Two new step-free Zone 1 Tube stations at Battersea Power Station, on Battersea Park Road, and Nine Elms on Wandsworth Road, bring this area within a 15-minute journey of the City and the West End. The 3km branch line connects with the rest of the Northern line at Kennington.

Outside Battersea Power Station Tube

Nine Elms Tube station

Trains run from Kennington station on the Charing Cross branch with a peak time service of six trains per hour and five trains per hour off-peak.

The Northern line extension is London’s first major Tube extension this century and the first time Battersea has had a Tube connection.

Major construction on the twin-tunnel extension began in 2015. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the construction project stayed on track to open on 20 September 2021.

Funding from developer levies

The Government confirmed a £1bn loan guarantee to fund the scheme and Transport for London (TfL)’s formal planning application under the Transport and Works Act was approved by the Secretary of State for Transport in November 2014. TfL appointed the joint venture Ferrovial Agroman Laing O’Rourke (FLO) to design and build the NLE, and construction started in early 2015. The loan will be repaid through a levy on the area’s development sites and through future growth in business rates revenue.

Timeline

• 2014: Secretary of State granted Transport and Works Act Order (November)
• 2015: Start of major construction works (November)
• 2017: Two tunnel boring machines – Helen and Amy – launched at Battersea (March) and broke-through at Kennington (November) – named in honour of the first British astronaut, Helen Sharman, and British aviation pioneer, Amy Johnson, who was the first female pilot to fly solo from Britain to Australia
• 2018: Tunnelling work undertaken for new customer passageways linking platforms at Kennington Tube station
• 2019: Completion of track installation throughout the NLE . Engineering train travels the length of the extension for the first time (June)
• 2020: Power supplied to stations (November) and energisation of track (December). Start of dynamic testing with first test passenger train travelling the length of the extension (December)
• 2021: Trial operations begin (July); start of passenger services on 20 September.

The construction of the NLE is supported around 1,000 jobs and 50 apprenticeships and opportunities have been co-ordinated with Wandsworth Work Match and local jobs brokerages.

Find out more about the Northern Line extension on the TfL website.

Driving growth

An economic benefits study by Volterra (2011) concluded that the new Tube link would:

• Expand the Central London Activity Zone – one of the most productive commercial districts in the world
• generate up to £7.9bn in wider economic benefits and up to £4.5 billion in additional tax revenue for the Exchequer
• repay the money spent delivering the NLE between three and nine times over through increased economic outputs and increased foreign investment in the UK
• more than treble the number new of jobs created in the area – up to 25,000
• provide capacity for the thousands of new homes in the area.

New Northern Line Extension to Battersea and Nine Elms