South London Line

South London Line
A London Overground train at Clapham High Street
Overview
Type	Commuter rail, Freight rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Greater London
Termini	London Victoria London Bridge
Stations	10
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	London Overground Southern Southeastern
Rolling stock	Class 378 "Capitalstar" Class 465 "Networker" Class 466 "Networker"
Technical
Track gauge	Standard gauge
Electrification	750 V DC third rail

The South London Line is an Inner London part of the London Overground rail network. The line is run together with the East London Line to provide direct services between Clapham Junction and Highbury & Islington. It consists of eight stations, one of which marks the crossover into the East London Line network and runs 8.5 miles (13.7 km). Most of the line is on high viaduct over other transport infrastructure. Interchanges with the London Underground are at Clapham High Street and the closest on its London Overground extension is Canada Water. The line is in Travelcard Zone 2.

From the early 20th century until 2012 a shorter precursor route ran from the major terminus Victoria in Westminster to the interchange station London Bridge adjoining the City of London. Sections of the line are used by other passenger railways and a section of the line was used by Eurostar when the London terminus was Waterloo International.

It is proposed to use the spare capacity of the line as part of a Victoria-Bellingham service, to the south-east of the capital.

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.