The Bakerloo line extension to Lewisham could get official funding in 2025

South Londoners have been eagerly anticipating the possible extension of the Bakerloo line since it was first hinted at a decade ago. Since then, the project has gone through lots of ups and downs, with the latest update saying it could cost £8 billion and not be complete until 2040. Now there’s been an exciting development, as Deputy Mayor for Transport Seb Dance has said the ‘planets are aligning’ for the brown line to be extended to Lewisham. 

The government could give TfL funding for the Bakerloo extension as soon spring 2025, the Standard has reported. TfL has launched a new campaign, called Biz4Bakerloo, to collaborate with businesses to get the line extended all the way to Hayes, via Lewisham. At the Biz4Bakerloo launch event, TfL’s chief customer and strategy officer Alex Williams said the line needed to be a ‘coalition of the private and public sector’ in order for it to happen. Senior TfL officials added that the government’s focus on getting more homes built made the project more likely to happen. 

Williams revealed that ahead of the Chancellor’s ‘comprehensive spending review’ in spring 2025, which is expected to outline Government spending over the next few years, TfL submit a specific request for money to pay for the Bakerloo line extension and upgrade. 

But before TfL can even think about extending the line, the Bakerloo’s 52-year-old trains need to be replaced. Dance said it was ‘quite astonishing’ that the trains – the oldest in service in the UK – were still working. 

‘There are increasingly fewer people who know how to fix them. Unfortunately, the number of people we are relying upon to fix these trains, as and when they fall out of service, is reducing,’ Dance said. ‘We cannot go on in a situation running the oldest trains in western Europe on our network. We have to upgrade it.’

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has provided £485 million for London’s capital renewals programme for 2025-26, which could go towards the new Bakerloo trains.

So, after years of rumours, polls and petitions, things are finally looking good for the future of the brown line.  

TfL has also started work on a ‘feasibility study’ for extending the Bakerloo line to Lewisham.