Northern Line - Future

Future

The Northern line was scheduled to switch to automatic train operation in 2012, using the same SelTrac system as Jubilee line from 2009 and used for a number of years on the Docklands Light Railway. Work was originally planned to follow on from the Jubilee line in order to benefit from the experience of installing it there, but that project was not completed until spring 2011. Originally work on the Northern line was intended to be completed by the contractually stipulated date, which was before the 2012 Olympics. With the work now being taken in-house and no contractual deadlines to meet, a more realistic timetable suggests that it will be complete in 2014.

TfL's Transport 2025 – Transport vision for a growing world confirms its long-term aim of splitting the Northern line into two separate routes. Running trains between all combinations of branches and the two central sections, as is currently done, means only 20–22 trains an hour can run through each of the central sections, because merging trains have to wait for each other at the junctions. Completely segregating the routes will allow 32 trains an hour on all parts of the system. However, Camden Town tube station will need to be rebuilt before this can be implemented, as the current station would not be able to cope with the increased number of passengers changing trains there. London Underground Limited (LUL) had, however, had problems gaining planning permission for the redevelopment plans. All plans for a revised scheme for Camden Town station have been delayed by budgetary cuts.

Because the full split is not possible without a rebuilt Camden Town station, and the need to increase capacity remains, the current plan is to achieve a partial split by terminating all Charing Cross branch trains at Kennington during normal service. This would eliminate the need to co-ordinate train paths southbound when they merge at Kennington and would enable the Morden-Bank branch to operate at the maximum capacity that the new signalling system will allow. This will not happen until the line has been resignalled, as it is only then that the full benefits of this plan can be realised.

In June 2008, Treasury Holdings, owners of Battersea Power Station, announced proposals for an extension of the Northern line from Kennington to a station in Battersea to serve a redeveloped power station site. The plan has been approved by the London Borough of Wandsworth, and the extension could be opened by 2015 as part of a planned redevelopment of the Battersea Power Station. In October 2009, the proposal received a boost when Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced that developers of the area would be exempt from the Crossrail levy and instead required to pay towards the proposed Northern line extension. In May 2010 the company proposing the route revealed four options for the route. Option 1 was for a non-stop from Kennington to Battersea. Option 2 suggested a station in the middle of Nine Elms, then a station at Battersea. Option 3 proposed two new platforms at Vauxhall and then to Battersea; and option 4 was for a station near the new U.S. Embassy and then to Battersea. On 11 November 2010 Wandsworth Council approved a version of option 2 with the intermediate station at Wandsworth Road. This was ratified by the Mayor of London on 22 December 2010. See also Northern line extension to Battersea.

In the long term, a full operational split of the line into two distinct non-overlapping routes could lead to one or both being renamed and given a different colour on the Tube map. If the Battersea extension does not get built, there are opportunities to extend from Kennington to other places in south-east London, such as Camberwell, in line with the Mayor's transport policy to provide greater tube coverage in that area, although a Bakerloo line extension to Camberwell has been the traditional option.