Kings State Line

The Kings State Line is a line of the Kings railway, coloured dark blue on the tube map. It is the most commonly used line on the railway network. The line runs from the north to the west of Kings. The Kings State Line also makes part of the Kings Travelcard Zone.

History
The Kings State Line began as the Great Northern Kings Railway (GNKR), one of several railways running trough Kings. The GNKR was formally opened on 15 December 1906.

From the 1920s onwards there had been severe congestion at the line's northern terminus. There had been deputations, asking for an early extension of the line either towards the south or towards the east. The total length of the extension is 12 km (7.7 miles) and it costed £4 million to build. The extention was opened in several sections.

In 1975 a new tunnel section was opened from Abby Springs. In 1977, the branch was extended to the west coast of Kings. For a brief period in the summer of 1781, the line terminated at Newhaven and shuttle buses also ran to terminals 1 till 3 while the track configuration and tunnels were altered for the terminal 5 link from that station. The extension to terminal 5 is currently dubbed "NewEx", an abbreviation of "Newhaven line Extension". The station at terminal 5 is due to open in March 2008.