Northern Line extension to halve journey time to central London

19 September 2021, 23:27 | Updated: 20 September 2021, 00:46

The travel time to central London will halve for some travellers as two stations are added to the London Underground map on Monday.

The stations will halve the amount of time it takes for residents in Battersea to get into central London.

The new stations, Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms, are due to open on September 20, with the first train leaving Battersea Power Station at 5:28am.

Both are step-free access stations, bringing the total to 88 accessible stations out of 272.

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Journey times from Battersea to central London could take as little as 15 minutes once the line is up and running.

Currently, it takes around half an hour to travel from Battersea Power Station to iconic London sights such as Leicester Square.

The stations will be added to the Kennington end of the Northern Line in the first major extension of the Tube since the 1990s.

TfL estimate that the extension has cost £1.1 billion.

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Initially, at peak times, there will be six trains per hour travelling to and from Battersea Power Station, rising to 12 by mid-2022.

Kennington will become a Zone 1/2 station once the extension has opened, meaning that people travelling between the new stations and central London will pay a zone 1 fare only.

The Northern Line extension began in 2015 but was delayed three years ago due to "miscalculations". 

At the new end of the line, the Grade II-listed Battersea Power Station has been redeveloped as the site of more than 100 retail shops, restaurants and cafes.