A RAILWAY line that Labour promised to build in its 2001 election manifesto is to be delayed for at least four years and may never fully open.

The East London Line, which would provide the missing link in a line circling the capital and improve access in the most deprived boroughs, was meant to open in 2006.

Mainline trains would run from Highbury and Islington station to Clapham Junction and West Croydon via the existing short East London Tube line under the Thames.

Only 3½ miles of new track in Hackney and New Cross is needed to link underexploited sections of the rail network.

The team behind the project will announce this week, however, that June 2010 is now the earliest the line could open because of repeated delays while ministers argue over the £1 billion cost of the scheme.

More than £100 million has already been spent preparing the route and demolishing a set of Victorian rail arches at Bishopsgate goods yard.

The Prince of Wales fought hard to save the arches, which are now a mountain of rubble. The goods yard, which would be the location of a busy new station serving the City, will be mothballed next week when the demolition team leaves.

The Government announced in December 2001 that work had started on the line and promised that trains would be carrying passengers by 2006. Stephen Byers, who as Transport Secretary at the time attended the launch ceremony, failed to make clear that only the demolition had been funded.

He said then: “This is the first step towards this new line, which will not only bring much-needed investment to the capital but will also help to ease congestion on existing Tube and rail lines.”

The line is a victim of government uncertainty over how to attract private finance into the railways. Ministers had hoped that a private consortium would shoulder most of the risk, but investors have been wary of rail projects since the collapse of Railtrack.

The Department for Transport has now ordered the East London Line project team to save money by coming up with options for building the line in stages. Ian Brown, rail director at Transport for London, said he feared the delays would result in the loss of planning powers for key sections.

“We are very concerned that doing the project in stages will lose us all the benefits which only come when the whole line is open. We don’t want to do something cheap and nasty, which fails to meet London’s urgent transport needs.”

The East London Line is one of three important rail schemes proposed to cope with London’s rapid growth, which is due to generate 640,000 extra commuters by 2016.

Doubts over funding also overshadow both the £3 billion Thameslink 2000 project to expand the north-south route and the £10 billion Crossrail plan for east-west tunnels.

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