Letter: Let the Jubilee Line go even farther

MICHAEL PICKARD of the London Docklands Development Corporation is absolutely right when he says (Letters, 2 August) that the extension of the Jubilee Line is not for Canary Wharf alone but would also benefit the whole of London. Even on the Government's own figures, however, the road and rail decongestion benefits to central London would be worth pounds 230m and pounds 275m respectively.

The Transport Ministry has revealed that the quantifiable benefits fall only pounds 90m short of the construction costs (Hansard, 16 July). The pounds 400m being sought as a contribution from the private sector would, therefore, produce a surplus in the region of pounds 300m.

For that sum, the Government could extend the Jubilee Line farther from Stratford to Woolwich Arsenal, the area with the highest rate of unemployment (60 per cent) in London. This would give a tremendous boost to east and south-east London, which is why the Jubilee Line was planned in the first place.

John Austin Walker, MP

(Lab, Woolwich)

House of Commons