Passenger numbers on the Overground’s increasingly-popular East London Line have doubled in the past year.
The 12 trains-an-hour service, which runs through Shoreditch High Street in the north of Tower Hamlets to Wapping on the river and then onto south east London carries around 85,000 people a day.
In February the line was connected with the wider London Overground network by a new link between Dalston Junction and Highbury & Islington.
Passenger numbers increased by 75 per cent just six weeks after the extension was opened.
Managing director of London Rail which manages the line, Mike Brown, said: “With the new link we’ve noticed a lot of journeys between Highbury & Islington and Shadwell. Passengers are clearly seeing the benefit of interchanging with the DLR at Shadwell to continue their journey to the Docklands.”
The line is to be further extended from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction at the end of 2012.
This will make London Overground an orbital rail network around the capital.
Passenger numbers are expected to increase to 40 million in 2016.
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