You might have heard the old joke about a man walking into a chip shop and ordering two portions of cod and chips in the usual way: “Cod and chips twice, please”. The man behind the counter says, “All right mate, I heard you the first time”.

This joke came to mind recently while taking the Northern Line for the first time in over a year, from Golders Green down to Waterloo. The maps in the carriage showed two new stations, Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station, extending out from Kennington.

Kennington is the stop where the two loops of the Northern Line meet up, one that passes through Tottenham Court Road and Waterloo, the other through Bank and London Bridge. Previously it was in Zone 2 of the network and it has now been reassigned as Zone 1 & 2.

Despite my childhood enthusiasm for London Transport, last autumn’s opening of the two new stations (both in Zone 1) passed me by. This piece from the Standard was published just before the event and shows the new part of the tube map. It also mentions that there are now 272 stations on the Underground and that this extension had an estimated final cost of £1.1billion. That makes it £550million per station for each of the following: Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station. The former is the second station that includes a number spelt out as part of its name (there’s also Seven Sisters, and I’m not including the actual numbers that form part of the Heathrow stations). The latter is the only stop that includes the word “Station” in its name: Battersea Power Station Station.  All right mate, I heard you the first time.