It’s been the talk of the town city for many years now, and has maintained its place at the very top of every South Londoner’s wish-list since it was first proposed. But have TfL gotten any further along with their plans to extend the Bakerloo Line to Lewisham and beyond? Well, listen up folks, because I come bearing a couple of updates.
The most recent updates on the Bakerloo Line extension
TfL have recently announced that they have ‘selected experts’ to examine the feasibility of building four new Bakerloo Line stations. The stations in question are Burgess Park, Old Kent Road, New Cross Gate, and Lewisham. AECOM and WW+P Architects will be conducting studies to ensure that the construction can go ahead. These studies are anticipated to take around four months to complete.
In a recent TfL Freedom of Information queryplans to extend the Bakerloo even further (towards Hayes and Beckenham Junction) were revealed – and it is now thought that this further extension will be being built at the same time as the core extension. The FOI request also revealed that 27 trains per hour would run between Queen’s Park and Lewisham once the extension is up and running, with a further 18 trains per hour heading further south.
Born originally as the ‘Baker Street and Waterloo Railway’, the Bakerloo Line has been running for a rather impressive 119 years. It’s train carriages are the currently the oldest trains in regular passenger service in Britainand so – understandably – the trains will most likely need to be replaced before the extension is up and running.
TfL is currently in the process of appealing for government funding, because – much like everything in the capital – the works won’t come cheap. It’s thought that the core extension will set TfL back between £5.2 billion and £8.7 billionwith the addition extension costing another £1.9 billion.
TfL said: “A viable funding package is needed to build the Bakerloo line extension. We’ll continue discussions with the Government while being realistic about the funding London could contribute to an extension over the coming years”.
In terms of a timeline, the extension still seems to be on track to be up and running by 2040with construction beginning at some point in the early 2030’s. And look, I know that it seems like an awfully long time away, but if the next five years whizz by as quickly as the last; we’ll be on those shiny new Bakerloo Line trains to Lewisham in no time at all.
Read more about TfL’s Bakerloo Line extension plans here.
