The South London line is a railway line in inner south London, England. The initial passenger service on the route was established by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway on 1 May 1867 when the central London terminal stations of Victoria and London Bridge were connecting to the inner south London suburbs of Clapham, Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham. Since 2012 passenger services have been part of London Overground and run between and continuing toward via the East London line. The line is long and consists of seven stations, one of which marks the crossover into the East London line network. Most of the line was built on a high level viaduct above other transport infrastructure. Interchanges with the London Underground are at and the closest on its London Overground extension is . The line is in Travelcard Zone 2.
History
The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) was authorised to build the former route of the line by the South London Railway Act 1862. Designed and engineered under Frederick Banister, it re-used the Wandsworth Road to Brixton section built as part of the LCDR main line. The line was quadrupled and extended to London Bridge. The northern pair of tracks (becoming the Chatham Lines), without stations, was used by the LCDR to Kent; the southern (becoming the Atlantic lines) were used by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) into east Surrey parts of which became Greater London. Several stations were shared by the two companies.
LBSCR passenger service began 13 August 1866 between Loughborough Park and London Bridge. It was extended to Victoria on 1 May 1867.
The LBSCR scheme, authorised in 1903, pioneered main-line rail electrification in the UK, and the first electric train ran on 1 December 1909. For the following three years, steam trains alternated with electrics, the latter operating every 15 minutes from 7.30am to midnight. Passenger numbers had fallen on introducing electric tramways in South London by 1.25 million in six months. In the first year of the rival line's electric operation passengers increased from 4 million to 7.5 million. The electrification used the overhead system at 6700 V AC, supplied by a power station at Deptford. After creation of the Big Four railway companies, the Southern Railway installed standard third-rail 660 V DC supply on 17 June 1928. Pre-extension route The Southern service between London Victoria and London Bridge was axed in favour of joining to Clapham Junction and the London Overground's East London line leading to a reduction to peak-hour and Saturday services, adopting the west end of the old route (between London Victoria and Peckham Rye).
East London line extension into South London line
In 2012 a diversion was made to the eastern end to join to the East London line, a former London Underground line which was reconverted to main line operation as part of Phase 2 of its extension project reinstating an alignment between Rotherhithe and Peckham that had been disused since 1911, via Old Kent Road station. This created the route from to via , , , and . Completion was scheduled for May 2012 in time for the London 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, which was not achieved as the line opened on 9 December 2012.
The East London line connects to the North London line at , completing an orbital rail route around Central London, fulfilling the Orbirail concept.
Services
Passenger rail services were provided post-privatisation from 1991 until 2012 by Southern, as with continuing services on the eastern section from Peckham Rye to London Bridge. These services were part of the discontinued London Bridge – London Victoria service via Denmark Hill.
Services along part of the line are operated by Southeastern on the Victoria-Dartford line and the Chatham Main Lines, calling only at Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye.
The London Overground also runs on this line as part of the Clapham Junction – Dalston Junction / Highbury & Islington service. Trains also call at Wandsworth Road and Clapham High Street stations.
Southern also operates regular services from London Bridge to Caterham and Beckenham Junction. These services run along a small portion of the line, joining up from the Sutton and Mole Valley Lines at Peckham Rye, until it diverges from the London Overground at Queen's Road (Peckham) as trains continue towards London Bridge.
From January 2015
The Thameslink Programme caused Southeastern to make these timetable modifications: