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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 - and Information
Photographs courtesy of the Jubilee Line Extension Project and are © Jubilee Line Extension Project 1996
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