© Ian Simpson Architects LONDON UNDERGROUND
Ambitious aims for £1bn Northern Line Extension
Graeme Shaw, head of Northern Line Extension at London Underground, gives an overview of the project and its ambitious aims.
W
ork on the Northern Line Extension (NLE) could be up and running by autumn this year if Transport for London (TfL) gets the nod from the Department for Transport.
If not, it is more likely that the programme, which will deliver two new stations at Battersea Power Station and Elms Park, extending the Charing Cross branch from Kennington, will begin in January 2015.
Speaking at Infrarail, Graeme Shaw, head of Northern Line Extension for London Underground, said the team is in a “limbo period” as it waits for the decision on its Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) application.
borrowing will come from the private sector through a levy on the area’s development sites and through future growth in business rates revenue.
So far, more than three years of detailed planning and design work have already been completed and the scheme has received widespread backing during its fi rst and second round public consultations. It is now estimated that the NLE will cost £998.9m based on completion by the end of 2019.
Project challenges
Public consultations highlighted the preferred route for the extension, and the TWAO application report is now with the secretary of state for consideration.
Innovative funding
It was confi rmed in the Chancellor’s 2012 autumn statement that up to £1bn of borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board would be available to the Greater London Authority (GLA) to fi nance the construction of the NLE.
In a fi rst for an infrastructure project in England, the unique funding scheme means that whilst the borrowing will be undertaken by the public sector, the funding to repay the
88 | rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 14
Shaw noted that there have been some ‘challenges’ in trying to seek powers to build the extension. He said: “In the beginning I had to persuade people that we were going to build the railway and get the permission to operate it at the same time as trying to persuade the land owners to give up that land without knowing what we were going to build.
“We then had to try to secure the funding to build something that we didn’t really know what it was or when we could build it.”
But TfL did manage to persuade the GLA that it should borrow an “enormous” amount of money, Shaw said – but so far the unique funding process is “working extremely well”. Lots of people want to ensure the project is value for money, however.
Procurement
TfL has been conducting a procurement process which needed a “fi rm scope to be successful”.
In March 2013, TfL put out an OJEU notice for expressions of interest and that has been whittled down to four bidders: Balfour Beatty/ BAM, Bechtel/Strabag, Costain/Murphy and Laing O’Rourke/Ferrovial.
The two highest-scoring bidders are now participating in the next phase of the procurement process – understood to be Balfour Beatty/BAM and Laing O’Rourke/ Ferrovial, though TfL cannot confi rm this while the process is still underway.
Shaw said it was an interesting exercise to go to market to fi nd a contractor “and, in theory, place the contract before TfL had powers to build the railway”.
But he is confi dent TfL will award the contract in mid-to-late July and will receive the TWAO powers.
It is hoped the extension will improve transport links and public spaces in the local area and has been deemed “essential” to support the transformation of Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea, a designated regeneration area on the South Bank.
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