The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is welcoming widespread reports that next week’s budget will include funding for a £1.7 billion extension of the Docklands Light Railway to Thamesmead.

‘It will not only transform travel in a historically under-served part of the capital but also unlock thousands of new jobs and homes, boosting the economy not just locally but nationally.’

Transport for London’s plan shows the extension leaving the Beckton line just north of Gallions Reach, turning east through Beckton Riverside and then heading in a south-easterly direction under the Thames to Thamesmead. A extension beyond Thamesmead is also a possibility, which would take the line towards Erith.

TfL says funding from central government would allow work to start in 2028, with the line opening in the early 2030s.

Thamesmead was developed as social housing from the late 1960s and narrowly missed gaining a station in the following decade, because the proposed second phase of the Jubilee line would have continued the route from its original terminus at Charing Cross to Fenchurch Street and then into south east London. 

In the event the plan was dropped through lack of funding, and when a Jubilee line extension was eventually built 20 years later it served London Docklands and Stratford instead.

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