The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has ensured the last rail has been put firmly in place in the final link of the London Overground orbital network as he marked the completion of the track laying phase of the project.

London Overground already carries two million people every week linking north, west and east London with frequent and reliable services and well lit and staffed stations. The new extension across south London will complete the network, providing a brand new link between Surrey Quays in the south east and Clapham Junction in the south west.

Fifty-six new jobs will be created in the running of the new service, in addition to the 1000 who have been employed in designing and building the new link. The new line will also put 125,000 more jobs within an hour’s travel from south east London stations such as Peckham Rye and bring opportunity and investment to this previously under served area of south east London.

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Once complete, passengers on the line will benefit from a four trains per hour service. The next phase of the project will be electrification, followed by testing. The extension is expected to be up and running by the end of the year.

The new £75million link is being made possible in part through £60million from the Department of Transport, which was negotiated by the Mayor and confirmed in 2009.

Mr Johnson, said: "London Overground is already one of the most reliable and popular railways in the UK, and South London deserves a piece of that. Thanks to the neo-Victorian levels of investment we are putting into London's infrastructure, the people of Southwark, Lewisham, Lambeth and Wandsworth will be linked, for the first time, to every other corner of this city; and have access to a turn up and go metro service that will brings jobs, opportunities, growth and prosperity to this previously under served area of London."

(CD/DW)