East London line opens

by Richard Elkins

Students living in some of the University of the Arts London (UAL) halls of residence will benefit from improved transport links after the re-opening of the East London Line.

The line includes a stop at New Cross Gate, just around the corner from UAL halls at Ewen Henderson Court, and has been re-opened to form part of the London Overground network, having previously been a London Underground line until its closure back in 2007.

Dave Collins, security operative at Ewen Henderson Court, thinks the new line will be of benefit to students: “It will produce more direct access to the ‘arty’ parts of East London.”

Hannah Jones, a student at London College of Fashion and resident at Ewen Henderson Court said: “As a student who had to travel to central London all week, I think the new line will hopefully make my journey a lot quicker and easier than the current transport links available.

Benefits

“It’s also great for nights out to Shoreditch as the only way to get there before was a long bus ride,” she added.

The line currently runs from Dalston Junction in the north to West Croydon in the south with further extensions planned to be completed by 2012.

This is the first stage of a £1 billion extension with access to Highbury & Islington available from 2011 and services to Clapham Junction via Pechkam Rye due to be available from 2012.

Links to Shoreditch High Street are a huge benefactor in the new extension, which will provide quicker access to deprived areas of south London rather than the infrequent bus services.

Boris 'delighted'

London Mayor Boris Johnson was delighted the line was finally open: “This new railway will bring jobs and opportunities to communities up and down the line, massively improving access for hundreds of thousands of people.”

The plan was put into place during the previous mayorship of Labour’s Ken Livingstone but has been opened by the current London Mayor, Conservative’s Boris Johnson.

Labour London Assembly Member, Val Shawcross, criticised Johnson for taking the plaudits: “It's a bit rich for Boris Johnson to try and take credit for it in the middle of the election campaign, when it was in fact funded and started by a Labour Mayor thanks to Labour government funding."

'Further complications'

However, it is not all good news as passengers on the Jubilee line face more delays after TfL's £310 million aquisition of Tube Lines, the company responsible for maintenance work on the Underground.

Yesterday, Johnson said that his decision to end the public-private partnership system of modernising the Tube would lead to a huge reduction in closures.

But a report reveals that, over the Easter weekend, “further problems” were established on the Jubilee line at a depot in Stratford and at the line's control centre in Neasden, alongside train and system reliability.

The new system is being introduced to allow more trains to run. However, the report says: “London Underground believes that it will be some months before the system could be used in passenger service.”

A TfL spokesman said: “Our priority is to see the upgrade of the Jubilee line delivered as soon as possible, and ensure the reliability of service that customers and businesses on the line depend upon.

"Progress is being made, but there is still much work to do.”

According to the Evening Standard, closures across the network have lost TfL £13 million in fares in the last financial year, part of a £53 million shortfall caused by 2.3 per cent fewer Tube journeys made in the recession.