Boris: Bakerloo line extension's time has come
The Standard reports:
Boris Johnson today raised hopes of extending the Bakerloo line further into south-east London by describing it as a £2 billion project whose “time has come”.
The Mayor confirmed his wish to take the line from Elephant and Castle to Camberwell and Peckham and probably overground to Bromley after pressure from Labour-run Southwark council.
Precise routes have yet to be confirmed and it could take more than a decade to secure funding. [Southwark Council leader] Mr John, who was told by the Mayor that “it’s a deal” when he lobbied him at a property conference in Cannes, said it was important to get the scheme included in Transport for London’s masterplan for 2020.
TfL is working with Southwark and Lewisham to examine the potential for the extension “unlocking” other developments.
Mr Johnson said: “It is the new extension of the Northern line that is making possible the development of Battersea. We can do the same for south-east London.”
There are several possible routes that have been touted, including one that would stop at Brockley Station, as this image posted on South East Central illustrates:
A Bakerloo Line extension is low-hanging fruit for the Mayor and this is a welcome change of rhetoric. Relatively cheap and easy to deliver (by the standards of mass-transit projects), serving an area of enormous economic potential, extending a line that stops short at Elephant & Castle and is therefore unbalanced in terms of passenger volumes. The Bakerloo would fill the gap between Crossrails 1 and 2 and address one of the biggest holes on the London transport map. It will happen.
