London Overground has celebrated its fifth birthday, just a few weeks short of completing its final extension across south London, creating an orbital railway around the Capital.
Says TfL’s Chief Operating Officer for London Rail, Howard Smith, ‘London Overground’s first five years have seen meteoric growth in both the railway network and passenger numbers. We’ve extended the Overground to West Croydon and Crystal Palace, we’ve linked Dalston Junction to Highbury & Islington and soon we’ll cross south London to the major rail gateway of Clapham Junction.
‘We’ve bought a new fleet of 57 new air-conditioned trains, we’ve built new stations, refurbished old ones with 21st century passenger facilities and we’ve put staff at every station while the trains are running. In north London, we replaced a signalling system and tracks that had been in place since Victorian times.
In short, London Overground is a perfect example of how – if you put passengers at the centre of everything you do – they will use the services you offer. Londoners want a safe, frequent and reliable service to get them around the Capital and London Overground provides it.’
In just five years passenger numbers have quadrupled, with more than 100 million journeys now being made each year on the London Overground and more than 300 million to date. In December the final link in the network from Clapham Junction to Surrey Quays will click into place making London Overground’s orbital network complete.
London Overground is operated by LOROL, a joint venture between Deutshe Bahn and Hong Kong subway operator, MTR.
