Northern line customers can interchange between the Bank and Charing Cross branches at Kennington again from today (Mon 17th Sept) following the completion of excavation work as part of the Northern Line Extension.
Kennington cross passages (c)TfL
The excavation of four new customer passageways at Kennington tube station has meant that Bank branch trains have not been stopping at the station since the end of May.
The temporary timetable introduced to mitigate the impact of these works will continue until late September. This means that services will be slightly reduced off-peak, with a train approximately every 10 minutes between Morden and the Charing Cross branch. However, peak services have already returned to normal frequencies.
Following the construction of the new tunnels, the final fit-out of the passageways will now continue as planned during engineering hours. This includes the installation of the flooring and electrical works as well as tiling the passageway walls.
The complex work saw engineers dig out almost 2,000 tonnes of spoil (mostly London Clay) by hand and install timber and steel supports to strengthen the structure of each customer passageway.
They also used around 900 tonnes of concrete and 500 tunnel ring segments to create the new structures.
Kennington cross passages (c)TfL
Once completed, the four additional passageways will make it easier for customers to change between different branches of the Northern line at Kennington, and will be essential for those using the new Northern Line Extension from Kennington to Battersea Power Station via Nine Elms, which is targeted for completion in 2020.
Major tunnelling on the extension finished at the end of last year and, over Christmas, the new and existing Northern line tunnels were connected for the first time. The track is being laid in both tunnels and work on the new stations at Battersea and Nine Elms is progressing well with platforms currently being installed.
Good to see the site holding up despite hack attempts
While these improvements with aid cross platform interchange something which will become the norm if plans to split the Northern Line into separate lines are realised once work at Camden Town Station is completed.
It’s a pity that work at Kennington did not include full step free Station access and interchange between both branches as part of NLE Project.
Great news for passengers using the Northern Line. Except for those who use the Northern Line Bank Branch.
Actually are passengers now using the Northern Line Bank Branch as it reopened since the Northern Line trains didn’t stop at Kennington via Bank/Angel.