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Imagine a London where the tube (or Overground) reached every neighbourhood, no matter how far out. Seems far fetched, doesn’t it? Well, with exciting new rail plans, this could be a step closer to becoming true. The only downside is that now you won’t have an excuse not to go to that friend’s party in Peckham.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has revealed London’s 10-year Growth Plan, which involves three mega rail schemes. They’ve all been teased before – plans for the extension of the Bakerloo line, the DLR and the West London Orbital (WLO) have all been revealed in the past, but they’re now officially included in Khan’s ambitious growth plan.
If the schemes go ahead, the old brown line could stretch to Lewisham, while the DLR could reach Thamesmead, and the Overground could extend west to Hounslow, becoming the WLO.
The 10-year plan also reveals ambitions to build Crossrail 2, an Elizabeth line 2.0 that would stretch from Epsom in the south to Broxbourne to the north, going via Dalston, Angel, Clapham Junction and Wimbledon.
The drive to get these lines up and running is underpinned by the Mayor’s plan to create 60,000 new homes in London, which would all need better transport links. The Mayor hopes that 30,000, 20,000 and 7,000 homes would be unlocked by the Thamesmead DLR, Lewisham Bakerloo line and the WLO, respectively. And according to the plan, Crossrail 2 could unlock as many as 200,000 new homes.
How these extensions would be funded, or when work would begin, was not laid out in the proposal. We’ll have to wait and see.
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