Tube line shut until 2010

Train passengers face mayhem when a Tube line closes on Saturday for more than two years.

The East London line, linking Whitechapel with New Cross and New Cross Gate, will shut until 2010 and eventually reopen as the East London Railway, part of the new London Overground network.

It will be extended to Dalston Junction in the east, Crystal Palace and West Croydon in the south and, by 2011, Highbury and Islington in the north.

Replacement bus services have been organised from Sunday but will not cross the river because of width restrictions in the Rotherhithe Tunnel. Passengers should use Jubilee line or Docklands Light Railway instead.

Buses will run from New Cross Gate to Canada Water every eight to 10 minutes daily and every five minutes at peak times. Another bus will run from Canada Water to Rotherhithe and two services will connect Whitechapel with Wapping and Shoreditch.