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South London Line

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The '''South London Line''', operated by Southern (train operating company) Southern (New Southern Railway Ltd), runs from London Victoria railway station Victoria to London Bridge railway station London Bridge. It owes its existence to the ''South London Railway Act'' 1862, which allowed the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) to take part in this project. The line already existed from Wandsworth Road railway station Wandsworth Road to Brixton railway station Brixton as part of the LCDR main line: the new line was quadrupled between these points and extended to London Bridge. The northern pair was used by the LCDR; the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) used the southern pair. Several of the stations were shared by the two companies. The South Cross Route, one side of the Ringway 1 inner ring road, would have paralleled much of the South London Line. The following are the stations which are, or have been, on the line: *Victoria Station (London) London Victoria *Battersea Park railway station Battersea Park *Wandsworth Road railway station Wandsworth Road *Clapham High Street railway station Clapham High Street *East Brixton railway station East Brixton - station on LBSCR lines, now closed *Denmark Hill railway station Denmark Hill *Peckham Rye railway station Peckham Rye *Queen's Road Peckham railway station Queen's Road Peckham *South Bermondsey railway station South Bermondsey *Old Kent Road railway station Old Kent Road - closed in 1917 *London Bridge railway station London Bridge

Electrification
The main importance of this line is that it was a pioneering railway electrification scheme in Britain. The opening of the tramway system in South London had led to huge passenger losses for the railways - 1.25 million in only six months - and the LBSCR electrified the South London line in an attempt to reverse the tide: it had obtained powers to do so in 1903. On 1 December 1909 the first electric trains began services. For the first three years, steam trains alternated with the electrics: the latter operated a 15-minute interval service from 7.30am to midnight. In the first year of electric operation, passengers carried almost doubled, from 4 million to 7.5 million. The electrification used the overhead system at 6700 V AC, supplied by the power station at Deptford. The line was converted to Southern Railway standard third-rail 660 V DC on 17 June 1928). The entirety of the route, apart from the London termini, is in Travelcard Zone 2.

The outer route
Another route between Victoria and London Bridge, also operated by Southern (train operating company) Southern, follows the Brighton main lines. It has the following stations: *Victoria Station (London) London Victoria *Battersea Park railway station Battersea Park *Clapham Junction railway station Clapham Junction *Wandsworth Common railway station Wandsworth Common *Balham station Balham The Victoria - Brighton line continues southwards at this point; the connecting link runs to the London Bridge - Brighton line at Sydenham railway station Sydenham. That line from Wandsworth Common to Sydenham was opened on 1 December 1856 by the ''West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway'' in connection with the removal of the Crystal Palace from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill. The stations on the remainder of this route are: *Streatham Hill railway station Streatham Hill *West Norwood railway station West Norwood *Gipsy Hill railway station Gipsy Hill *Crystal Palace railway station Crystal Palace - was suffixed "Low Level" until the High Level station and its branch line closed on 20 September 1954 *Sydenham railway station Sydenham *Forest Hill railway station Forest Hill *Honor Oak Park railway station Honor Oak Park *Brockley railway station Brockley *New Cross Gate station New Cross Gate *London Bridge railway station London Bridge This line is in Zones Travelcard Zone 1 1 to Travelcard Zone 4 4. Both the lines will form part of the proposed East London Line southern extensions - the South London Line from Surrey Quays tube station to Wandsworth Road (and thence to Clapham Junction) and the outer line from New Cross Gate to Crystal Palace. {{Railway lines in London}} Category:Southwark Category:Lambeth

External links

- 'The South London Line And Its Traffic' ('''PDF''') - a reproduction of a September 1953 article from The Railway Magazine, courtesy of the [http://www.semg.org.uk/ Southern E-Group].

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