A plan to extend the London Underground’s Northern line to Clapham Junction is being investigated by Wandsworth Council.
A paper being considered by Wandsworth Council’s transport committee is looking at the extension though, as part of a wider plan to improve the Clapham Junction town centre. They say that “a key element of improving public transport would be the further extension of the Northern Line from Battersea Power Station to Clapham Junction.”
The original plan to improve public transport in the Clapham Junction area had relied on Crossrail 2 being built, as that would create a link directly into central London. However, Crossrail 2 is on hold at the moment.
The Northern line has just had an extension and two new stations added taking it to Battersea Power Station, and was designed for an option to extend it one more stop to Clapham Junction in the future.
During the public inquiry into the original extension in 2014, the planning inspector noted that although an extension to Clapham Junction would be desirable, it was unnecessary to meet the needs of the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea regeneration area. Ever since though, there’s been a simmering desire to extend the Northern line one stop further. However, that additional extension is unfunded, and there have long been concerns that linking the Northern line to the very busy Clapham Junction station could exceed the Northern line’s capacity without significant upgrades along the rest of the line as well. Plans to increase the number of trains on the Northern line by splitting it into two separate services following a rebuild of Camden Town station are on hold due to TfL’s financial situation.
Apart from the capacity issue on the Nothern line, there’s also the issue of funding the extension. Wandsworth council has already committed much of the additional taxes it expects to receive from the Battersea extension to paying for its contribution to the extension. To fund the extension to Clapham Junction would likely need such a large property development to take place that it wouldn’t get local support.
The council report indicates that an extension to Clapham Junction would cost at least £750 million to build – that’s for the interchange station, between 2.6kms and 3kms of new tunnels, and probably two ventilation shafts.
The report says that funding the extension “would require very significant levels of development in and around Clapham Junction” as they don’t expect any money from central government for the scheme, and TfL isn’t in a position to pay for it either, even if they wanted to.
There is a plan to redevelop Clapham Junction station, but even that would be unlikely to cover the cost of the Northern line extension in addition to the Network Rail rebuilding works.
Apart from the cost of building the railway, there’s also some concern that rather than increasing fares revenue from additional train journeys, the tube line would simply abstract passengers from the mainline railway and buses, which would mean minimal additional passengers.
While there is merit in building transport upgrades to solve capacity problems, the preference at Clapham Junction has long been in favour of Crossrail 2 adding a fourth spur to the services, as a Northern line extension would only duplicate the existing mainline rail route to Waterloo.
The council however has a manifesto pledge from the last election to investigate the possibility, so is proposing to hire a consultancy to investigate options for extending the Northern line to Clapham Junction station. The report would be a pre-feasibility level report, looking only at the broad overview of such an extension.
The main aim would be to decide if a Northern line extension would be the best option for the area, or if other options might deliver the same level of improvement at a lower cost.
The likelihood is that the consultants will come back with a report showing that the costs far outweigh the fairly modest benefits.
Surely the time to do it would have been when doing the extension. Wonder how much less it would have cost to keep the tunnelling machines going at the time than starting again.
Again, this was debated. But the same thing is what I would have had to accept: CAPACITY, pre-pandemic. But as we will always accept, post-pandemic travel hasn’t recovered and will never likely recover in the near future.
That would have made for a negligible cost saving.
If I were a consultant, I would agree that although it is substantial on paper, in reality it will only worsen capacity along existing stations. Platforms along the Charing Cross branch are too narrow to accommodate passengers: as is the case since the Jubilee Line extension and the opening of the Elizabeth Line. Crossrail 2 is a critical necessity to add capacity and relieve congestion. So an extension to Clapham Junction is not a priority.
Has there been discussion about converting the clapham junction train depot as part of the wider changes? Seems like expensive real estate for trains to sunbathe in
No. And in any case, the depot will be reserved for demolition under Crossrail 2. (This isn’t a definitive assertion.)
That’s very Wandsworth. Pie in the sky thinking, no funding whatsoever.
As mentioned in the article, this isn’t just a one stop extension.
It is reliant on funding to upgrade Camden Town Station, splitting the Northern Line in two and capacity upgrades to other stations on the Charing Cross branch. Not to mention the need for more trains to run the service.
It’s a nice idea though. If somehow funding miraculously appears, I’d support it! Getting to Clapham Junction from the North/East would be far easier than the painfully slow London Overground route.
How does the capacity argument work? Surely the people travelling into London via Clapham Junction already go into the Tube network, but further in, at Vauxhall, Victoria and Waterloo. How would some of them joining the network a bit sooner, at Clapham Junction, make any difference to overall network capacity and use?
“… there have long been concerns that linking the Northern line to the very busy Clapham Junction station could exceed the Northern line’s capacity without significant upgrades along the rest of the line as well”
I suspect that with hybrid work post-covid, the capacity situation across the network is a bit different now. My sense is that the peaks are not quite as bad. But I’m taking DLR and central line which have benefited from passengers changing their commute to crossrail. Anyway if anyone has any data on this I’d be interested
I think once things have settled into the “new normal/post pandemic” world we can look again at the passenger level regarding capacity issues.
I’d like to see both an extension to Clapham Junction of the Northern line and in the longer term Cross Rail 2.
It would seem to me, given the financial issues within TfL at the moment, the more cost effective measure would be to sort out Camden Town and have the two branches of the Northern line split before deciding whether BOTH CR2 and the extension are needed.
But it feels like both Camden Council and TfL are dragging their feet in any proposed redevelopment at Camden as they already have the land in hand to do it.
It has nothing to do with Camden Council and everything to do with TfL not having enough money for any capital projects at the moment (see also Holborn).
Wrong place
It should go to Putney
Wandsworth High Street/ Southside, which has no tube, makes sense if they are going to extend to Clapham Junction. There is no way Wandsworth Town station will be able to handle the additional passengers from all the high-rises being built around it. They could easily tunnel under the SW Railway land or maybe even use the existing tracks to extend to Wandsworth High Street.
Here’s a better route: Battersea Power Station, Battersea High Street, Wandsworth Town, Southfields, Wimbledon Village, Raynes Park.
Better to focus on providing more options in the South East of London where two boroughs don’t have any London Underground stations
The Bakerloo should go to Lewisham and then onto Bromley.
The DLR should be extended to Thamesmead and then Abbey Wood.
Southeastern Services should be run by TfL which then makes it alot easier to extend the Elizabeth Line to Dartford.
The Thames Clipper should stop at Erith Pier.
There is plenty of land to build on in South East London but without the transport links developers will just hold onto it.
Fully agree.
TfL should concentrate its tube investments in South East London. The impact on housing (eg Lewisham and beyond) and reduction in traffic (eg Old Kent Road in the case of the Bakerloo extension) will be greater than almost anywhere else.
Until the North/South tube investment gap is partially reduced, residents in South London should benefit from lower fares when they buy season tickets.
Southern Rail passengers travelling from Brighton, Gatwick, Haywards Heath, etc. upgrade an would benefit greatly from a stop at Balham Station, where they can access the Northern Line. This would reduce congestion at Clapham Junction and Victoria, for minimal cost.
The Northern line should be extended two further stops. Clapham Junction and then to a new tube station in the centre of Wandsworth close to the Southside shopping centre. Wandsworth council should be actively pursuing a tube line into the middle of Wandsworth Town to serve the shopping area and interchange with local buses.