A new £40 million station near Brent Cross Shopping Centre is set to open by the end of this year.

Brent Cross West, which will be the first new major mainline station in London to open in the last decade, is on track for its grand opening in December 2022. 

The station, which will have four platforms and a connecting bridge, is part of a wider £419 million regeneration programme for the area known as Brent Cross South. 

Once completed, the station is expected to serve two million people in its first year, with this set to rise to around five million a year once the wider Brent Cross project is finished in 2031. 

Situated on the Thameslink line, passengers will be able to get to Kings Cross St Pancras Station in 12 minutes, with direct services also to Luton and Gatwick airports.

The station received backing in 2020 from Barnet Council, which said works are "progressing well". Steel beams are set to be added to the concourse roof in April, with work on the new footbridge scheduled to begin in May.

The council said it is "an ambitious and visually stunning project which has sustainability and environmental innovations at the heart of its design". 

It added: "The completed building will feature a roof canopy of glazed panels resting on timber columns, vines connected to ground floor planters by a wire trellis system, and ornamental trees in the entranceway."

Local politicians have said the station will help revitalise an area that has been in need of investment and will impact on residents in Barnet, as well as those in neighbouring Brent and Camden.  

According to Barnet Council, at least 20 per cent of all those working on the project will come from these three boroughs. 

The wider regeneration scheme has been described as "one of the most ambitious in Europe" and is set to deliver a new town centre in Brent Cross, as well as 6,700 more homes, new parks, schools and doctors surgeries.