The station, partially funded by the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station,[6] serves the redevelopment site and Battersea itself. The station is located on Battersea Park Road, close to Battersea Park railway station and within walking distance from Queenstown Road railway station, forming an out-of-station interchange with both. The line and station opened on 20 September 2021.[7] It is the only station on the London Underground network to include the word 'station' in its name.[8]
The station was given final approval by the Secretary of State for Transport in November 2014,[24] before construction began in 2015, with completion originally scheduled for 2020.[25] Tunnelling of the Northern line extension began at Battersea, with the two tunnel boring machines, Helen and Amy, departing the site in March 2017 to dig the running tunnels of the extended line.[6]
In the draft edition of the Transport for London (TfL) "Business Plan 2014", issued as part of the TfL Board papers for their meeting on 10 December 2014, the map TfL's Rail Transport Network at 2021 labelled the terminus as "Battersea Power Station", instead of just "Battersea" as had appeared on previous publications.[26] In December 2015, TfL confirmed that the station would be named "Battersea Power Station".[27] This means it is the only station on the Underground with the word "station" in its official name. There has been some confusion as to whether to construct the name as "Battersea Power (S/s)tation" or "Battersea Power Station station".[28]
In December 2018, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced that the project would be delayed until September 2021 at the earliest "to increase the station's capacity to cope with a higher number of passengers than originally forecast".[29]
By June 2019, major tunnelling and track works had been completed, with an engineering train running on the extension for the first time.[30] By February 2020, construction of the station was nearly complete, with platforms, escalators and the London Underground roundel installed.[31] The first London Underground train ran onto the extension over the 2020 Christmas period, marking the start of the signal testing period.[32]
In September 2022, TfL announced that over 5 million trips had been made on the extension since opening, with an average of 80,000 trips a week at Battersea Power Station.[34] Battersea Power Station noted that demand will increase further as the site reopened as an office and retail complex in October 2022.[34] TfL estimates that demand could increase to 10 million yearly by 2024/25.[35]
In November 2022, Battersea Power Station was awarded the Architects' Journal Architecture Award for Infrastructure and Transport, with the station canopy singled out for special praise by the judges.[36]
^"Battersea boost imminent". www.modernrailways.com. 20 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2022. This prompted a descoping of the tunnels beyond Battersea Power Station to become short 20-metre overrun tunnels, with trains to be outstabled in the platforms at Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station instead.
^ abLydall, Ross (23 September 2022). "Five million trips on Northern line extension". Evening Standard. Retrieved 27 September 2022. The number of trains on the route was doubled in June, from six to 12 trains per hour during peak times, and from five to 10 trains per hour off-peak.