Railway line in London
The East London line is a railway line running north to south through the East, Docklands and South areas of London. It is used by London Overground services. It was previously a line of the London Underground.
Built in 1869 by the East London Railway Company, which reused the Thames Tunnel intended for horse-drawn carriages, the line became part of the London Underground network in 1933. After nearly 75 years as part of that network, it closed on 22 December 2007 for an extensive refurbishment and expansion, reopening as part of the Overground network in April 2010. Phase 2, which links the line to the South London line with a terminus at Clapham Junction, opened on 9 December 2012, creating an orbital railway around inner London.
In 2024, London Overground services on the line were rebranded the Windrush line.
History.
Establishment of the East London Railway.
The East London Railway was created by the East London Railway Company, a consortium of six railway companies: the Great Eastern Railway (GER), the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&amp;SCR), the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR), the South Eastern Railway (SER), the Metropolitan Railway, and the District Railway. The latter two operated what are now the Metropolitan, Circle, District and Hammersmith &amp; City lines of the London Underground. The incorporation of the ELR took place on 26 May 1865 with the aim of providing a link between the LB&amp;SCR, GER and SER lines.
The companies reused the Thames Tunnel, built by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel between 1825 and 1843 for horse-drawn carriages. The tunnel, with generous headroom and two carriageways separated by arches, connected Wapping on the north bank of the Thames with Rotherhithe on the south bank. A triumph of civil engineering, it was a commercial failure and by the 1860s it had become an unpleasant and disreputable place.
The tunnel was the most easterly land connection between the north and south banks of the Thames, close to the docks on both banks of the river, and was not far from mainline railways at either end. Converting the tunnel for railway use thus offered a means of providing a cross-Thames rail link. On 25 September 1865 the East London Railway Company took ownership of the tunnel at a cost of £800,000. Over the next four years the company built a railway through the tunnel to connect with the existing lines. The company's engineer was Sir John Hawkshaw, who was also responsible for the major re-design and completion of I K Brunel's long-abandoned Clifton Suspension Bridge at Bristol. The section of the railway construction work from Wapping to Bishopsgate, which was very difficult, was carried out by the firm "T. &amp; C. Walker and Co." (Thomas Andrew Walker and his younger brother Charles). 
The line opened in stages as financing became available:
Early use.
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The East London Railway Company owned the infrastructure but it was operated by its controlling railways. Steam trains were initially operated by the GER, LB&amp;SCR and the SER. The LB&amp;SCR used its LBSCR A1 Class Terrier locomotives, which William Stroudley designed partly with this line in mind. It carried both passenger and goods trains; the LB&amp;SCR operated between Liverpool Street and Croydon, the SER running between Addiscombe and Liverpool Street from April 1880 until March 1884. From March to September 1884 the SER service ran from Addiscombe to St Mary's (MR &amp; MDR Joint Station). Metropolitan Railway services from St Mary's to New Cross (SER) and Metropolitan District Railway services from St Mary's to New Cross Gate (LB&amp;SCR) commenced on 1 October 1884. On 6 October through services started from Hammersmith (Hammersmith &amp; City) to New Cross (SER) and from (MDR) to New Cross (LB&amp;SCR).
United Kingdom legislation
United Kingdom legislation
Before the development of the Kent coalfields in the early part of the 20th century, house coal from the north for distribution in south London and as far afield as Maidstone and Brighton was an important source of revenue. Access at the north end of the line was difficult: trains were limited to 26 wagons and had to be shunted into the Great Eastern's Liverpool Street station and drawn forward onto the ELR. To avoid this reversal, a line was planned from the ELR north of Whitechapel to the GER at Bethnal Green. Acts for this were passed in 1866 and 1868. When the GER route to Hackney Downs Junction, now Hackney Downs, was constructed in 1872, the route was altered to connect at Cambridge Heath, with an abandonment Act for the previous route in 1871 and two new acts in 1876 (39 &amp; 40 Vict. c. lii) and 1877 (40 &amp; 41 Vict. c. clvi). A short length of the latter tunnel was built, and from October 1900 additional capacity was offered by a wagon lift, carrying two ten-ton wagons, from the Great Eastern coal depot at Spitalfields to a siding laid in the tunnel stub. The surface junction was taken up in 1966 and the lift closed in 1967, after a fire at the Spitalfields depot.
When the Metropolitan District Railway was electrified in 1905 it ceased using the ELR, the last trains running on 31 July 1905; the Metropolitan Railway suspended its service after 2 December 1906. LB&amp;SCR and GER services continued, and SER services recommenced on 3 December 1906.
The line was electrified, with the controlling railways funding the upgrade and the Metropolitan Railway providing the rolling stock. Electric services began on 31 March 1913 and ran from the two southern termini to Shoreditch and via and . In 1914 the service to South Kensington was diverted to , on what is now the Hammersmith &amp; City line.
United Kingdom legislation
After the 1923 grouping the goods service was operated by London and North Eastern Railway (as successors to the GER), with the Metropolitan Railway continuing to provide passenger services. Ownership was transferred to the Southern Railway by the Southern Railway Act 1925, but the railway continued to be leased to the Joint Committee, now comprising the Southern Railway (47.5%), the LNER (17.5%), the Metropolitan Railway (17.5%), and the District Railway (17.5%). 
London Underground era.
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In 1933, the East London Railway came under the control of the London Passenger Transport Board. Although the infrastructure was still privately owned, passenger services were operated as the "East London Branch" of the Metropolitan line. The railways were nationalised in 1948, and became part of the British Transport Commission along with the Underground. Goods services continued to use the line until 1962, with occasional passenger trains from Liverpool Street until 1966. The short length of track connecting Shoreditch to Liverpool St was removed in 1966. The service to Shoreditch was reduced, with becoming the northern terminus for much of the time; by the time station closed in 2006, it was only open at peak times on weekdays and most of Sundays (for Brick Lane Market).
Services to and from stations further west were curtailed during the early part of the Underground era. The service to Hammersmith was reduced to peak hours only in 1936 and withdrawn in 1939, leaving the East London branch as an isolated line. Until 1999, its only passenger interchange to the rest of the Underground was at Whitechapel, with interchanges to main line trains at the two New Cross stations. In the 1980s and 1990s, the line gained two important new connections: Shadwell became an interchange with the Docklands Light Railway in 1987, and a station was added at in 1999 for interchange with the Jubilee line. The line was closed entirely between March 1995 and March 1998 for major maintenance and refurbishment works, during which time a rail-replacement bus service operated.
The identity of the East London line changed considerably during the London Underground era. On Tube maps between 1933 and 1968 it was depicted in the same colour as the Metropolitan line. In 1970, it was renamed the "Metropolitan line — East London Section", in Metropolitan line purple with a white stripe down the middle. In the 1980s it became a line in its own right (though it was still grouped operationally with the Metropolitan line) and from 1990 its colour on the map changed to orange. In 1995, London Underground threatened to close the line if it did not receive listed building consent from the London Docklands Development Corporation for the shotcreting of four arches of Thames Tunnel. Maintenance passed to the Metronet consortium in 2003 under a public-private partnership, although the operation of trains continued to be the responsibility of Transport for London (TfL). According to TfL, the line carried 10.7 million passengers per year before its temporary closure in 2007.
Physical characteristics.
The line was the only Underground line not to penetrate Travelcard Zone 1 and (apart from the Moorgate to Finsbury Park service, transferred to British Rail in 1976) the only line designed and constructed for mainline trains. At in length it was the second-shortest line (after the Waterloo &amp; City line), with nine stations and an end-to-end journey time of 14 minutes. It ran in tunnel from Whitechapel to Surrey Quays, with the remainder on the surface or in cutting. Whilst much of the line was built as cut-and-cover, it also contained overground and tube construction features. The deepest point is at Wapping station, constructed in the Thames Tunnel's original entrance shaft below the surface.
It connected with South Eastern Main Line services at New Cross and Brighton Main Line services at New Cross Gate. Underground connections were at Canada Water (Jubilee line) and Whitechapel (District and Hammersmith &amp; City Lines). A non-contiguous connection with the Docklands Light Railway was at Shadwell, with the DLR station some away on a viaduct. Although the interchange was via the street, through ticketing was permitted.
A link with the Metropolitan and District lines was made just south of Whitechapel via St Mary's Curve. This has been out of passenger use since 1939 but was still used to transfer rolling stock to and from the Metropolitan line's main depot at Neasden. The curve can easily be seen on the northbound and eastbound approaches to Whitechapel station, although a temporary wall was built across the line in January 2008, close to the junction with the District line..
Most of the line was double track, with Shoreditch station and the final sections into the southern termini single track, the latter because of lack of space. This required trains to alternate between the two southern termini.
Rolling stock.
The line used Metropolitan line A60 and A62 sub-surface rolling stock built by Cravens of Sheffield in two batches between 1960 and 1962. It was upgraded between 1995 and 1998 with improved suspension, lighting, heating and ventilation. The rolling stock was regularly interchanged with that used on the main Metropolitan line and usually carried both East London and Metropolitan line maps, but ELL trains were four-car units with a driving cab at each end, unlike Metropolitan line trains, which, aside from the Chesham shuttle, ran as eight-car trains. Metropolitan line trains were mostly two single-ended units coupled together with fully operational driving cabs at each end: the Met could use any ELL trains, but the ELL could use only double-ended units.
Seven four-car trains operated the line (six off-peak, seven during peak hours when Shoreditch was open). Off peak, train seven became the spare. The line operated some of the shortest trains on the network, necessitated by short platforms. The small number of trains made the line particularly sensitive to disruption caused by vandalism, train faults or staff shortages. Sometimes in the early 2000s only two trains were running. Trains were operated by just a driver: the decision to withdraw the guards prompted an unsuccessful strike by the National Union of Railwaymen in May 1985.
Light maintenance and stabling took place at a small depot near New Cross, with heavier work at the main Metropolitan line depot at Neasden. Between 1985 and 1987, D78 stock operated the line before being replaced by A60 and A62 stock. During the 1970s the line was operated by 1938 Tube stock.
Stations.
The stations in operation during most of the London Underground era, in order from north to south, were as follows:
Conversion to Overground.
Engineering work on the East London line extension started in 2005 and the underground service ended in December 2007.
In 2007 London Buses route ELW Whitechapel – Shadwell – Wapping was introduced, operating every 10 minutes, every 15