London mayor and transport secretary talk up teamwork for project that has come in under budget and on time
Rarely can so much bonhomie have been generated by a Monday morning trip on the Northern line. As the £1.1bn London Underground extension opened for the first time, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, and London mayor, Sadiq Khan, rode west together to Battersea Power Station – and talked up the teamwork for a project that has finally come in under budget and on time.
Services started at 5.28am, with enthusiasts queueing outside the new Battersea Power Station tube station for a slice of underground history, the first new stations this side of the millennium. Some were racing from the other end: a man with a homemade “first passenger for Battersea from Mill Hill East” sign stapled to his T-shirt jostled for position in camera shot when the VIPs arrived.
