UK’s Northern Line extension confirmed

The £1 billion (€1.26 billion) upgrade of London’s Northern Line in the UK has been confirmed by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.

This includes a €836 million contract led by a consortium including Laing O’Rourke and Ferrovial Agroman, which will start in Spring 2015. It will bring up to 24,000 jobs and around 16,000 new homes.

Linking Nine Elms station in south-west London to Kennington, it will cut journey times from West to Central London to 15 minutes.

The 3.2km line extension will include a new station at the former Battersea Power Station – which is being transformed as part of €10.5 billion investment regenerating the disused site into retail facilities and luxury housing.

The Northern line project comes as proposals for a second London Crossrail scheme running north to south through the capital were announced earlier this month.

If approved, this €25 billion venture would be undertaken after the initial Crossrail scheme linking Heathrow in West London with Abbey Wood in South East London, which is expected to be completed in 2016.