East London Line

The East London Line is a line of London Overground. It runs in a north -south direction in the East End and in the Docklands to the east of the British capital London.

The East London Railway Company opened in 1869, the original route through the Thames Tunnel, the world's oldest tunnel under a river. In the following decades, several railway companies operated the route together. 1933, the East London Line has been integrated into the network of the London Underground, in 1948 she was owned by the public sector. The underground operation ended in December 2007. Thereafter, the entire track was closed two and a half years to completely renew and to extend at both ends. Since April 2010 she is again passable and part of the network of London Overground. With further additions in the following years, the once short subway supplement line developed at the heart of a railway ring around the center of London.

• 2.1 project Planning
• 2.2 Implementation of Phase 1
• 2.3 Implementation of Phase 2

History

Emergence of the East London Railway

The East London Railway was built by the similarly named company East London Railway Company. At this consortium of six different railway companies were involved: the Great Eastern Railway (GER ), the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB & SCR), the London, Chatham and Dover Railway ( LCDR ), the South Eastern Railway (SER ), the Metropolitan Railway ( MR) and the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR ). The latter two operated routes now form the as Metropolitan Line, District Line and Hammersmith & City Line part of the London Underground.

The consortium planned to use the built 1825-1843 by Marc Isambard Brunel and Isambard Kingdom Brunel Thames Tunnel. The tunnel was originally built for horse-drawn carriages, had a generous loading gauge and two lanes, which were separated by column. However, the tunnel was ultimately only as a pedestrian connection. He joined Wapping on the north bank of the River Thames with Rotherhithe on the south bank. Although the tunnel was considered as a masterpiece of engineering, but in commercial terms he proved to be a total failure. He also appeared in the 1860s, a magnet for prostitutes and thieves.

At this time the tunnel was the easternmost firm connection between the north and the south bank of the Thames. He lay in the immediate vicinity of the docks on both sides of the river and was not far from the existing main rail lines. With the conversion of the tunnel for the railway there was an ideal opportunity to the different routes to connect with each other without having to build a new tunnel. On September 25, 1865, the East London Railway Company acquired the Thames Tunnel for £ 800,000. During the next four years, the consortium built a new railway line through the tunnel.

The line was opened in sections in operation, depending on the availability of funds:

• December 7, 1869: from New Cross Gate station (then New Cross ) to Wapping. The operation was carried out by the LB & SCR, intermediate stations developed at the Deptford Road (now Surrey Quays ) and in Rotherhithe.
• March 13, 1871: Opening of a branch from a point just south of the present station to the Old Kent Road Surrey Quays railway station on the South London Line. The operation on this route was discontinued in 1911, the rails then removed.
• April 19, 1876: From Wapping after Shoreditch. The course was as Unterpflasterbahn, partly on the grounds of an abandoned and today delivered covered dock. In Shoreditch a connection to the Great Eastern Railway was built to allow the LB & SCR access to Liverpool Street Station. In addition, the opening of the railway stations Shadwell and Whitechapel.
• April 1, 1880: Junction to New Cross station on the South Eastern Railway.
• March 3, 1884: Connection between the Metropolitan Railway and the East London Railway south of Whitechapel. This allowed trains of the Metropolitan Railway and Metropolitan District Railway to cross the river. Although the connection is not longer in use after 1941 of passenger trains, they also served to transfer empty trains between the East London Line and the rest of the sub-surface network.

Use in the early phase

The East London Railway Company owned the infrastructure, led by himself but no trains. Instead, they leased the track to the parent companies. At the beginning perverted steam trains of the GER, the LB & SCR and the SER. There were both passenger and freight transport. Passenger trains of the LB & SCR traveling between Liverpool Street and Croydon, from April 1880 to March 1884, those of the SER between Liverpool Street and Addiscombe. The SER offered from March to September 1884 trains from Addiscombe to St Mary's on (joint station of MR and MDR). As of October 1, 1884 trains used the MR and MDR the route which plied from St Mary's to New Cross and New Cross Gate. Six days later it started out of direct trains between Hammersmith and New Cross and New Cross Gate.

Before the development of the coal mines of Kent at the beginning of the 20th century, was the certain for heating coal from the north, which was transported to South London and up to Maidstone and Brighton, an important source of income. The access at the northern end of the route was complicated: The trains were limited to 26 cars; they had to be pushed into the Liverpool Street Station, and then pulled on the East London Railway. For larger capacity made ​​from October 1900 wagon elevator cars from the GER- coal depot at Spitalfields transported to a siding at the East London Railway at Whitechapel. The elevator was in operation until 1967.

After the electrification of the MDR- haul network perverted from July 31, 1905 no trains of this company learn more about the route, the MR was followed on 2 December 1906. Trains the LB & SCR and the GER wrong continues, the SER took on 3 December 1906 operating back on. Later, the East London Railway was also electrified, the parent companies shared the costs and MR provided the rolling stock available. The electrical operation began on 31 March 1913. MR trains operated by the two southern termini over Shoreditch and Edgware Road to South Kensington from 1914 to Hammersmith. With the entry into force of the Railways Act 1921 in 1923 the freight passed to the London and North Eastern Railway, while the MR was still responsible for passenger transport.

Part of the London Underground

1933 came the East London Railway under the control of state authority London Passenger Transport Board. Although the infrastructure remained in private ownership, the passenger was carried out as a branch line of the Metropolitan Line, as " East London Branch ". 1948 was followed by the nationalization of the entire subway network, which was put together with the railway lines under the supervision of the British Transport Commission. Freight trains from British Rail (BR ) used the route to 1962, the sparse passenger from Liverpool Street until 1966. During the same year they removed the link between Shoreditch and Liverpool Street. The operation itself was also reduced by Shoreditch, Whitechapel then served most of the time as the northern terminus of the line. Shoreditch was operated until its closure on June 9, 2006, only on weekdays during rush hour and on Sundays (because of the popular market in Brick Lane ), but not on Saturdays.

The connection to Hammersmith was offered from 1936 onwards only during rush hour and 1941 finally all set. This lost the East London Line in importance and was now an isolated appendage on the outskirts of the metro network. The only interchange with Underground was in Whitechapel, while could be switched to the two train stations in New Cross trains on British Rail. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, two major interchanges were added: From 1987 served the Docklands Light Railway to Shadwell and was built in 1999 at Canada Water, a new station to create a shortcut to the extended Jubilee Line.

Description of the line

The East London line was the only line of the London Underground, which did not touch the Travelcard Zone 1. With nine kilometers in length, it was after the Waterloo & City Line, the second shortest line, the entire trip took only 14 minutes. Along the route were nine stations. Between Shoreditch and Surrey Quays, the line ran underground in these constructions, the rest of the route was on the ground or lay in cuts. The lowest point was in the Wapping station on the original input shaft of the Thames Tunnel, 18.29 meters below the surface.

Just south of the station Whitechapel was a link to the Metropolitan Line and the District Line, the so-called St Mary 's Curve. This compound was since 1941 for the scheduled traffic out of service, but was regularly used to transfer rolling stock to the main operating workshop Neasden. The curve is easily recognizable from Whitechapel, but a wall was built in January 2008, so that it can not be driven since then.

The largest part of the track was twofold, the station Shoreditch and the access to the two southern termini were, however, carried a single track because of lack of space. There were two farewell tours, once on 16 December 2007 with the historic 1938 Tube Stock and 22 December 2007, a special employee of the East London Line. In the night of 22 to the December 23, 2007 drove the last trains of the East London Line.

Rolling stock

The East London Line made ​​a few years a site group with the Metropolitan Line. Until recently, the same rolling stock as came to the Metropolitan used. By May 1985, was on every train next to the driver and a door guard; the announcement to abolish the latter, had an unsuccessful strike by the National Union of Railwaymen result.

The trains, built in the early 1960s, most recently used, it underwent a modernization in 1994, whereby improved suspension, lighting, heating and ventilation. There were a total of five trains used with four cars. In New Cross is a small depot was a parking area. For general inspections of the depot Neasden was responsible.

Stations

• Shoreditch: Opened on April 10, 1876; first-time operation by subway on March 31, 1913 closed on 25 March 1995 re-opened on September 27, 1998, finally closing on June 9, 2006.
• Whitechapel: Opened on 10 April 1876 as Whitechapel ( Mile End ); renamed in Whitechapel on January 13, 1901; first-time operation by subway on March 31, 1913 closed on February 1, 1902 re-opened on 2 June 1902.
• Shadwell: Opened on 10 April 1876 as Shadwell; first-time operation by subway on December 1, 1884; renamed in Shadwell & St. George - in-the- East on July 1, 1900; closed on December 2, 1906; re-opened on March 31, 1913; renamed in Shadwell in 1918; closed on 25 March 1995 reopened on 25 March 1998.
• Wapping: Opened on December 7, 1869; first-time operation by subway on December 1, 1884; closed on December 2, 1906; re-opened on March 31, 1913; closed on 25 March 1995 reopened on 25 March 1998.
• Rotherhithe: Opened on December 7, 1869; first-time operation by subway on December 1, 1884; closed on December 2, 1906; re-opened on March 31, 1913; closed on 25 March 1995 reopened on 25 March 1998.
• Canada Water: Opened on 17 September 1999.
• Surrey Quays: Opened on December 7, 1869; first-time operation by subway on December 1, 1884; closed on December 2, 1906; reopened as Surrey Docks on March 31, 1913 renamed Surrey Quays October 24, 1989; closed on 25 March 1995 reopened on 25 March 1998.
• New Cross Gate: Opening ELL on December 7, 1869; first-time operation by subway on December 1, 1884; closed on 31 August 1886, reopened a day at the new site later; closed on July 31, 1905; re-opened on March 31, 1913; closed on 25 March 1995 reopened on 25 March 1998.
• New Cross: ELL opening on April 1, 1880 first-time operation by subway on December 1, 1884; closed on December 2, 1906; re-opened on March 31, 1913; closed on 25 March 1995 reopened on 25 March 1998.

Extension of the East London Line

Configuration

Already in the 1980s harbored the transport company London Transport 's intention, the relatively short East London Line to the east in a long north-south main thoroughfare of the City of London to convert. Provided the conversion were similar in a city train on the Docklands Light Railway and - as an alternative - reopening the connection to Liverpool Street. 1989, there were plans the route north to Dalston, south to Dulwich and Peckham Rye to renew. Existing railway lines and stations should already be shared ( as was already part of the Bakerloo Line, the Metropolitan Line and the District Line of the case). The construction costs would be 100 to 120 million pounds. The extended line should have been originally opened in 1994, but after numerous delays due to financial constraints, the project was eventually dropped.

A solution to the issue of funding finally became apparent in 1999 when London Transport announced to be on the lookout for private investors. The supervision of the project took over the Strategic Rail Authority London Underground instead because the new route would have a much greater impact on the railway network than on the subway. There was also a proposal to transfer the East London Line and other major profile sheets of the London Underground to Railtrack, which is responsible for the maintenance of the rail infrastructure private companies. This route would have been integrated into the suburban rail network. For practical reasons, however, the government rejected this proposal.

Implementation of Phase 1

The government issued on 9 October 2001, the building permit, the construction was provided in December of the same year. This had to be postponed, however, when it turned out that a listed Viaduktbogen from the 19th century on the site of the former goods station Bishopsgate would have had to be demolished. Stakeholders strained to a judicial procedure against London Underground to prevent the demolition. But the Court of Appeal approved the project on July 7, 2003.

Preparatory work by the company Taylor Woodrow began in June 2005 and lasted until the end of 2006; they included the replacement and renovation of 22 bridges along the Kingsland Viaduct. The station Shoreditch was decommissioned on 9 June 2006. On 22 December 2007, the metro traffic ended on the East London Line and replacement buses now linked the stations with each other; However, they crossed the Thames not due to the limited height of the Rotherhithe Tunnel.

On 27 April 2010 the re-opening of the extended East London Line at both ends by Mayor Boris Johnson was. First, there was a limited introduction of operating between the stations Dalston Junction and New Cross and New Cross Gate. Four weeks later, on 23 May 2010, the operation was extended as far as Crystal Palace and West Croydon.

The last remaining portion of the first phase between Dalston Junction and Highbury & Islington was opened in March 2011.

Implementation of Phase 2

The second phase of extension involved the construction of a 2.5 km long link from Surrey Quays station to the South London Line towards Clapham Junction. After some uncertainty regarding financing the implementation of the second phase in February 2009 had been approved. In addition, planned was an intermediate station on the Surrey Canal Road, this project, however, was postponed indefinitely. This line was a ring around the center of London. The second phase could be put into operation on December 9, 2012.