Jubilee Line Extension

51°30′32″N 0°08′28″W / 51.509°N 0.141°W / 51.509; -0.141

The Jubilee Line Extension (JLE) is the extension of the London Underground's Jubilee line from Green Park to Stratford through south and east London. An eastward extension of the line was first proposed in the 1970s. As part of the development of London Docklands, the line was extended to serve Canary Wharf and other areas of south and east London. Construction began in 1993, and it opened in stages from May to December 1999, at a cost of £3.5 billion.

The 11 new stations on the line were designed to be "future-proof", with wide passageways, large quantities of escalators and lifts, and emergency exits. The stations were the first on the Underground to have platform edge doors, and were built to have step free access throughout. Each of the stations was designed by a different architect, and the overall design of the project was led by Roland Paoletti. The stations have subsequently been praised as exemplary pieces of 20th-century architecture. The project was the single largest addition to the Underground in 25 years.

The extension of the line diverges just east of Green Park, eastward to:

Before the extension, the Jubilee line terminated at Charing Cross. The section between Charing Cross and Green Park, which diverges to the northwest, is now unused for passenger services but is maintained for emergency use. The abandoned platforms are occasionally rented out by TfL as a film set e.g. Skyfall, Thor: The Dark World and Woman in Black II.

The Jubilee line between Baker Street and Charing Cross was intended to be the first phase of the Fleet Line (as the Jubilee line was originally called). In the first version of the Fleet Line Extension plan, the line ran from Charing Cross via Aldwych and Ludgate Circus to Fenchurch Street station, then under the River Thames to connect to the East London line north of Surrey Docks (now Surrey Quays) from where it would take over Underground services to New Cross Gate and New Cross with tunnels continuing from the latter to Lewisham. In anticipation of this, the tunnels of the first phase of the line continued eastward from Charing Cross under Strand almost as far as Aldwych.

This plan was modified shortly before the Jubilee line opened in 1979. Under the new plan (known for planning purposes as the River Line), it would run to Fenchurch Street as before and continue via the Isle of Dogs, Royal Docks and Woolwich Arsenal to the "new town" at Thamesmead. A branch from Silvertown to Beckton would have provided a link to a new depot. This route is not dissimilar to the Crossrail route through the Docklands.

Plans to extend the line were revived in the late 1980s, prompted by the proposed development of London Docklands and Canary Wharf, which substantially increased the predicted numbers of jobs in the Isle of Dogs and required a transport network with much greater capacity than provided by the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). Initially, Olympia and York, the developers of Canary Wharf, proposed building a dedicated 'Waterloo and Greenwich Railway' from Waterloo through London Bridge to Canary Wharf and then to Westcombe Park in Greenwich, costing £400 million. However, London Transport resisted this, preferring to wait for the results of studies into new railway construction. One of these, the East London Railway Study, recommended an extension of the Jubilee line from Green Park to Westminster, then following the route of the Waterloo and Greenwich Railway, continuing to Stratford via Canning Town alongside the North London Line. This option was adopted, with an estimated cost of £2.1 billion to which Olympia and York would make a £400 million contribution, the original cost estimate of the Waterloo and Greenwich Railway. In the end it cost £3.5bn, partly because of huge cost overruns during construction. Where initially the developers were to pay for a large part of the extension, their final contribution was less than 5%.