Jubilee Line Extension
Bringing the Tube to Greenwich
Background
The London Underground was first opened on 10 January 1863, using steam
trains running over four miles (six km) of track between Paddington and
Farringdon Street. Nowadays there are eleven lines covering 254 miles (408 Km),
with 270 stations. 
The Jubilee Line extension, currently one of the largest construction
projects in Europe, will bring the Jubilee Line to south and east London. The
extension is about ten miles (16 km) in length, with six main tunnel sites,
eleven station sites, one depot, and 18 operating sites. Over three quarters of
the extension is in deep-level tunnels, running from Green Park to just south of
Canning Town. The line runs above ground from there to Stratford. Six new
stations are being built, and the other five are being improved and modernised
for the new Jubilee line connections. The planned construction programme is on
course for completion in September 1998, at a cost of over UKŁ 2,600 million
(US$ 4,000 million).
North Greenwich Station
The North Greenwich Peninsula, a bleak, derelict industrial site, appears at
first sight an unlikely location for an underground station, let alone the
biggest underground train station in the world. However, the area is to become
the location of Britain's Millennium Exhibition, and even before those plans
were announced it was part of the Port Greenwich development planned by British
Gas. As such, the new station is an essential requirement to the regeneration of
the area.
Designed by Alsop and Stormer , the station is about 400 yards (360 metres)
long, 22 yards (20 metres) wide, and 22 yards (20 metres) deep. Its hanging
concourse and banks of escalators will give passengers the chance to see the
structure's scale, side to side and end to end. 42 massive pillars support the
roof and the whole area is to have a light blue tiled colour scheme to maximise
light and the feeling of space.
The station will incorporate park and ride facilities for 1000 cars and a
major bus interchange within a few hundred yards of the Blackwall Tunnel
motorway approach road, the A102(M).
The following is an extract from "Benefits of the Jubilee Line
Extension: A Summary", produced in July 1995 by the Jubilee line extension
project Public Relations Department.
"Opening up the North Greenwich Peninsula
"North Greenwich is one of the largest derelict sites in London,
spanning an area of 285 acres which formerly contained the largest gasworks in
Western Europe.
"The Jubilee line extension will:-
- Provide two extra strategic river crossings to the area; east to Canning
Town & Stratford and west to the Isle of Dogs, Inner South London and
the West End, firmly anchoring the area to the rest of Docklands.
- Act as a catalyst to regenerate this inner city contaminated site through
encouraging and supporting the proposed housing and office scheme.
- Relieve road traffic on river crossings, particularly the Blackwall
Tunnel.
- Give access to Underground services for a wider area of south London via a
major bus network from North Greenwich bus station to areas such as Charlton
and Eltham bringing the benefits of Docklands developments within easy reach
of wide areas south of the river.
- Link the large SE London population ([London Borough of] Greenwich
population is 220,000, [London Borough of] Lewisham 230,000 and [London
Borough of] Bexley 220,000) with the growing employment north of the river.
- Provide a 500 space new park and ride facility with scope to expand to
1,000 spaces if justified. This facility could help ease pressure for car
access into the Isle of Dogs.
"The North Greenwich Peninsula is very isolated at present. The Jubilee
line extension direct link to Stratford of 7 minutes compares to the present 33
minutes by bus. To the West End a future journey of 20 minutes to Bond Street
compares to current journey of 49 minutes by BR and the existing Jubilee line
via Charing Cross.
"The greatly improved journey times and easy access afforded by the
Jubilee line extension was a vital factor taken into account for the successful
Greenwich Millennium celebration bid."
For latest news on the Jubilee Line extension:
Jubilee Line Extension - Official Home
Page and North
Greenwich Station Information
Photographs courtesy of the Jubilee Line Extension Project and are ©
Jubilee Line Extension Project 1996
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