What is Crossrail? |
Latest
City statement on Crossrail |
Funding
arrangements |
Next steps |
The City’s position
What is Crossrail?
Crossrail will be a new railway under central London linking
Maidenhead in the west with Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
There will also be a line to Heathrow, meaning the City will have a
direct rail connection to the airport. The City of London believes
that an east-west link across London is essential for London’s
competitiveness and is long overdue. Crossrail will alleviate the
current congestion on London’s rail network and provide extra
capacity to meet the anticipated growth in employment and more
widely in London’s population. It is anticipated that the first
service will run on the railway in 2017 and the service will be
built up over the following 12 months.
Click here for
maps of the route.
The project is being promoted by Cross London Rail Links (CLRL),
a joint venture company owned by
Transport for London (TfL) and the
Department for Transport (DfT).
Copies of petitions, including the City of London’s Crossrail
petition are available on the
Parliamentary Publications website.
If you have any City-specific comments regarding Crossrail,
please email us at
crossrail@cityoflondon.gov.uk.
Latest City statement on
Crossrail
On 5 October 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that
Crossrail now has the funding to go ahead. The Prime Minister said
that the construction of the line would be of “enormous importance,
not just for London but for the whole country”.
He continued: "For decades the idea of Crossrail - a major new
railway link connecting central London, the City and Canary Wharf
to Heathrow and to commuter areas east and west of the capital -
has been a long-held dream for business and Londoners alike.”
"I am pleased to be able to confirm to you all today that we
have now reached final agreement on the funding that is needed.
Full details will be announced next week but I can say today that
both the private and public sectors have made major financial
commitments and that the project will now definitely proceed."
Source: 10 Downing Street press release
Secretary of State announces
funding arrangements
Following the Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2007, the
Department for Transport announced a Government contribution of
over £5bn towards the overall £16bn cost of Crossrail. Subject to
Royal Assent, construction will be taken forward as a single
programme, with first services planned to come into operation
during 2017. Services to all stations on the route are expected to
build up incrementally over twelve months.
The Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly, said, "This
settlement confirms that investment in public transport will
continue to grow in real terms bringing sustained improvements for
the travelling public. The historic commitment to deliver Crossrail
will support Britain's economic growth and relieve the pressure on
the tube by carrying around 200 million passengers a year”.
Source: Department for Transport press release
Further funding details
On Friday 5 October, Michael Snyder, Chairman of the City of
London’s Policy and Resources Committee, welcomed the Prime
Minister’s announcement giving the definitive go-ahead to
Crossrail, and confirmed the details of the City of London’s
financial contribution to the project.
At a special meeting on Tuesday 2 October, the Court of Common
Council agreed to support a financial contribution for Crossrail of
£350m. This includes a one-off lump sum, payable to the government
in 2015 / 2016, of £200m from the City of London Corporation’s own
funds. Michael Snyder and the City Corporation have also agreed to
lead the efforts to raise additional contributions totalling £150m
from businesses across London.
Michael Snyder said: “The City Corporation has been pushing for
Crossrail for nearly 20 years and I personally have been working
for over 10 years to reach today’s decision. I am delighted that
the many hours of detailed discussion in recent days have finally
helped to bring about this success and will deliver the new railway
that London so desperately needs.”
“Crossrail is the most important new transport infrastructure in
the UK in the last 30 years and will make an immense difference to
London's credibility as a place to do international business.
Transport delays currently cost City businesses £1m each working
day. It is expected that Crossrail will add a net benefit of £30bn
pounds to UK GDP over 60 years and contribute £12bn in tax
revenues.”
“Crossrail is vital to the future prosperity and economic
success of the City, London and UK as a whole. It will help London
to cope with the forecast growth in population and jobs and will
play a significant part in maintaining our position as the world’s
leading international financial and business centre.”
Next steps
The Crossrail Bill completed its Third Reading in the House of
Commons on 13 December 2007 and has now passed to the House of
Lords where it is due to be debated in February 2008. It is
expected that Royal Assent will be announced in early summer of
2008. Therefore Crossrail is closer to being approved than it has
ever been but there still remains a lot of work to ensure that
Crossrail gets appropriate funding and detailed design approvals to
permit implementation. The City of London will therefore continue
to be closely involved with the promotion of Crossrail and will
seek to ensure that it is constructed as soon as possible and with
a minimum of disruption to City residents and businesses.
The City’s position
The City of London has long been a supporter of Crossrail and
welcomes the recent announcements. Employment in the Square Mile is
predicted to increase from current levels (approximately 340,000)
to well over 400,000 by the time the railway is due to begin
operation. Therefore, Crossrail will provide a timely boost to
capacity on London’s rail network.
However, although the City of London is strongly supportive of
the project, there has been some concern over the detail of some
aspects. The City of London has appeared before the Select
Committee and dialogue and negotiations regarding Crossrail are
ongoing. As a result of these discussions, the proposal for the
Barbican has been substantially improved. There is no longer a need
for a shaft in Aldersgate Street, nor is it necessary to have a
site to prepare concrete in that location.
Another welcome improvement to the proposal is that the Select
Committee have instructed Crossrail to enlarge the gate line in the
Liverpool Street station ticket hall and to add an additional
ticket hall on the north side of Liverpool Street. This extra
passenger space and station capacity will ensure that the station
is constructed from the outset to a design that meets future
forecasts of passenger traffic and also has the room for expected
medium term growth. This is especially important considering the
expected high density commercial property developments already
given permission in the eastern cluster in the City. Crossrail
published ‘additional provisions’ containing these alterations in
November 2006.
There are still, however, several outstanding issues that the
City of London wishes to see addressed, including:
- Ensuring that the construction of the new Canary Wharf station
does not affect the nearby Billingsgate Market. The eventual
successful contractors for construction will be obliged to ensure
the market building itself remains uncompromised during tunnelling
works and arrangements for alternative parking provisions will need
to be resolved.
- A further issue is to seek to ensure that Crossrail serves the
new Terminal 5 station at Heathrow, as this is likely to become the
busiest terminal in future. The extension of Crossrail to Reading
would also appear to be a worthwhile objective now that Network
Rail has approval to proceed with upgrading track capacity at this
important station.
December 2007