Reopen Finsbury Park - Edgware Railway

This is a proposal to reinstate the railway from Finsbury Park - Edgware via Highgate as part of Transport for London‘s tube network.

This is a priority, to ensure sustainable/sociable public transport continues to plays a key role in tackling climate change in London, and help grow the economy simultaneously.

This railway route (closed by British Rail to passenger service in 1954), if reopened would create interchanges with other parts of London’s railway network at Finsbury Park (Piccadilly/Victoria/Great Northern), Crouch End (London Overground), Highgate (Northern Line), Mill Hill (Midland Main Line) and Edgware (Northern Line).

All of this would result in a reduced requirement to rely on TFL buses, which produce large quantities of CO/CO2 emissions and noise pollution. Plus buses add to traffic congestion and increase roadworks due to wear on tarmac surfaces.

The railway originally closed due to a combination of the ‘Green Belt Act’ and a lack of funding caused by World War 2. This resulted in the failure of the UK Government at the time to handover the project to London Transport (TFL’s predecessor). When passenger services were withdrawn in 1954, predominantly all the associated infrastructure was in place to covert the line from steam trains to an electric passenger railway as part of the Northern Line.

Fast forward to 2022, residential housing and industry now surrounds the course of the former railway and would make for a faster journeys in and out of the capital.

The majority of the old trackbed between Finsbury Park - Edgware is currently a well preserved nature trail call the ‘Park Walk’. If the railway way reopened this would naturally help to protect fauna and flora along this green corridor. The public would still have access to vast collections of parks to compensate for the lose of this path in the immediate surrounding area.

Reopen this railway today as part of the TFL network and transform the surrounding area for the benefit of everyone.