London’s Northern Line Extension reached a major milestone marking the completion of the tunnels and track, as an engineering train successfully travelled the entire length of the new tunnels from Kennington to Battersea, for the first time.
“I’m delighted that the Northern Line Extension has reached such an important milestone, with a train running through the entire length of the tunnel, passing through new state-of-the-art stations,” Deputy Mayor for Transport, Heidi Alexander, said.
The train entered the new 3.2 km tunnels at Kennington station, travelling through the newly-constructed step-plate junction that connects the existing Northern line tunnels to the extension. It then continued to the new Nine Elms Tube station before terminating at the extension’s second new station at Battersea. The train carried 750 metres of power cable into the extension which was installed by 15 engineers.
Work to extend the line now focuses on the fit-out of the new stations, installing the power supply, and extending the signalling used on the Northern line to the extension.
The Northern line will be extended to Battersea which will help regenerate the Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea areas by supporting 20,000 new homes and over 25,000 jobs by 2030.
It is expected that the extension will be opened in autumn 2021, with a target of September, being the first major Tube line extension since the Jubilee line in the late 1990s.
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