A new transport link is almost always great news as far as homeowners and property investors are concerned - not least of all when connects poorly served communities within London. So this week we don our yellow plastic trainspotting macs and take a look at the development of the East London Underground line.

1825 - Over one hundred and seventy five years ago, the first phase of the East London Line began, when Marc Brunel started building a tunnel from Rotherhithe to Wapping. The site was chosen because the docks were on the north bank and the industries on the south. Despite work being suspended between 1828 and 1835 due to lack of funds, after several floodings and at the cost of ten lives, the tunnel was eventually opened as a foot tunnel by Queen Victoria on 27th January 1843.

1865 - The tunnel had been used as a pedestrian tunnel for over 20 years, until it was bought by the East London Railway Company in 1965, soon after which, work commenced on enabling rail services.

1884 - This was the year that the tunnel was first used by Underground trains - meaning that the tunnel has now been in rail service for nearly one hundred and twenty years. The service ran from St.Mary's (now closed, sited east of Aldgate East), then south to Shadwell, Wapping, Rotherhithe and Deptford Road (now Surrey Quays) and terminated at two separate stations, both called New Cross

1886 - A third New Cross station opened on the site of today's New Cross Gate.

1913 Three new stations opened: Whitechapel, Shoreditch and New Cross (now New Cross Gate), with a new electrically operated line.

1913 to present - Not a fat lot happened during this time, apart from a few stations being renamed, a period of closure in the 1990's for strengthening of the Thames tunnel and the opening of Canada Water station in 1999.

Like every story, there are two sides to the tale of the East London line extension, with separate proposals on the North and South sides of the river.

To the north, the planned route will see the permanent closure of Shoreditch station, which has been deemed as to close to the new station at Bishopsgate to be viable. From Bishopsgate, the line will run upwards to Hoxton, Haggerston and Dalston Junction, where it will connect with existing lines that go onwards to Highbury and Islington, Willesden Junction or Finsbury Park.

The newly approved southern extensions would involve two short new sections of railway to link the existing East London Line from New Cross Gate to Brockley, Forest Hill, West Croydon, Peckham Rye, East Dulwich, Tulse Hill and Wimbledon. It will also connect to mainline railways that will allow onwards travel to Crystal Palace or Croydon.

An indicative service pattern envisages up to 18 trains per hour on the Dalston Junction-Surrey Quays core of the extended East London line, comprising 4 over-lapping routes with trains calling at all intermediate stations:

• 6 trains per hour from Dalston Junction-New Cross
• 4 trains per hour from Finsbury Park-West Croydon
• 4 trains per hour from Highbury & Islington - Crystal Palace
• 4 trains per hour from Willesden Junction-Wimbledon.

The new rail links will cut journey times from many areas of South East London into the City. The following chart shows just some of the time savings that can be expected:

But the reality goes a little further than just cutting journey times, as the convenience of a direct rail transport route into the city centre is something that many soon-to-be-connected areas do not currently enjoy.

Areas that are currently not all that accessible, such as Hackney, Peckham and Lambeth, will suddenly become much more convenient places to live, making further regeneration much more viable. Expect to see a veritable avalanche of investment in some of these areas over the next decade.

Little wonder then, that clued up buyers are already snapping up properties for what will look like bargain prices in years to come. The South East and Hackney areas have long lagged behind other areas with similar properties, so there are very real gains to be had over the coming years. The transport links alone could easily add 10 or 15 percent to the value of properties along the new route, while the future regeneration of many areas would further boost values over and above their natural rate of growth.

Electrical power is now in place and ready to be switched on for both the north and south extensions, while some work has recently begun on bridge structures in Hackney. This follows on from the awarding of the contract for the first phase of work on the northern extensions to J Murphy & Sons Ltd. They will design and build phase one advance works, to include the renewal of the railway drains along the viaduct between Shoreditch and Dalston, partial demolition of Bishops Gate Goods Yard and the construction of new roads in the Allen Gardens area in LB Tower Hamlets.

As far as rail timetables are concerned, most of us realise that they are only a very rough guideline. However, last week's timetable will allow an early start to work on the southern extension, which should mean that both extensions can open at the same time, hopefully in 2006.

For more information contact:

London Underground (Safeguarding Team)
Telstar House
Eastbourne Terrace
London
W2 6LW
Tel: 020 7308 4400