The House of Commons Select Committee made an announcement of interim decisions in July 2006 which called on the Promoter to add a station at Woolwich. The Government initially responded that it will not do so as that would jeopardise the affordability of the whole scheme but a subsequent agreement has made this possible.

There are also campaigns to extend the line to Reading and Ebbsfleet.The Ebbsfleet and Reading routes have been safeguarded by the Department of Transport, although it has been made clear that there is currently no plan to extend Crossrail beyond the current scheme.Updating the existing safeguarding of the land to allow an extension to Ebbsfleet is still being considered.

Technical details

The tunnelled section of the line will be about 22 km (13.75 miles) in length: a difficult and expensive piece of engineering, because of two factors: London?s geology, and the extensive tunnelling that already exists in central London. Its twin circular tunnels will have an internal diameter of 6 m (19.7 ft)compared with the 3.8 m (12.5 ft) diameter of existing deep Tube lines. Rather than the third rail|four rail Railway electrification in Great Britain|electrification used by the London Underground or third rail on the existing North Kent line, Crossrail will use 25 kV AC|25 kV, 50 Hz AC Overhead Lines|Overhead Line, the same system as is present on the Great Eastern Main Line and the Great Western Main Line (only as far as Heathrow). The central tunnelled section will weave between existing tube and road tunnels[http://www.crossrail.co.uk/80256B090053AF4C/Files/centralareaverticalalignment/$FILE/vertical+alignment.jpg].

Rolling stock

As many as 65 new trains are planned to be constructed for use on Crossrail. It is intended that these will be five-car electric multiple units, which will operate in pairs coupled together, forming ten-car trains. These are planned to have speeds up to 160 km/h (100mph) on the surface parts of the route and up to 100 km/h (60mph) in the tunnels.

Dropped routes

Previous proposal

A report by a committee chaired by David Barran in 1974 recommended, alongside the development of the Fleet Line to Fenchurch Street and the River Line project, two new deep-level railway lines, one linking Paddington and Liverpool Street, via Marble Arch and Ludgate Circus; and another linking London Bridge and Victoria. The cost of these two links, along with the re-opening of the Snow Hill tunnel to form Thameslink, was estimated at £300 million.

An east–west route was again proposed in the early 1990s but was rejected by Parliament in 1994. This service even went as far as preparatory work on rolling stock, with concept drawings for what was planned to be Class 341 trains released. A number of alternative routes on the west side were considered, including regional services to Amersham and Watford in the north-west, Reading in the west. All have now been dropped in favour of the core proposal.

Current status

A hybrid bill for the scheme received Royal Assent on 22 July 2008: the full text may be found here. The Bill is accompanied by an Environmental Impact Statement, plans and other related information.. The bill gives Cross London Rail Links the powers necessary to construct the line.

On December 4 2008 it was announced Transport for London, the Department for Transport had signed the Crossrail Sponsors? Agreement. This commits them to financing the full cost of the project, alongside contributions from Network Rail, BAA and the City of London. The accompanying Crossrail Sponsors' Requirements commits them to the construction of the full scheme.

2009 will see the start of some preparatory work.Work has started at Tottenham Court Road station as this is one of the critical sites with work expected to take seven years to complete.Buildings (including the Astoria Theatre) have been compulsorily purchased and the start of demolition work is imminent.

Controversy

Some East London politicians object to the scheme which they see as an expensive west to east commuter service that will primarily benefit City and Docklands businesses, and bring enormous disruption to East London. As a result, the tunnelling strategy was changed to remove excavated material by barge from Leamouth rather than the originally proposed complex conveyor system in Mile End.

Some freight train operating companies including English, Welsh and Scottish Railway Ltd (EWS) are opposed to the current plans because they would use up much of the remaining rail capacity within the London area, and do not provide the necessary extra capacity on connecting lines. This will make it harder to route freight services from the southern ports to the north and will increase freight transit times. EWS have reserved their rights to pursue legal action citing violations of both UK and EU law. Such a legal action could delay Crossrail for several years.

There have been complaints from London music fans, as the redevelopment of the area is forcing the closure of a number of historic music venues. The London Astoria", the Astoria 2, The Metro, Sin nightclub and The Ghetto are all being demolished to allow expansion of the ticket hall and congestion relief at Tottenham Court Road station in advance of the arrival of Crossrail.

There is considerable annoyance in Reading that Crossrail will terminate at Maidenhead, not Reading. . However both the promoters and the government insist that there is nothing to prevent a later extension to Reading in future if it could be justified. In February 2008 it was announced that the route for an extension between Maidenhead and Reading was being protected..

Management aspects

'Cross London Rail Links Ltd' is the company responsible for creating Crossrail. It was jointly owned by Transport for London and the Department for Transport until December 2008, when full ownership was transferred to TfL. Crossrail has a £15.9 billion funding package in place

Authorisation

To give legal authorisation to Crossrail, a Hybrid Bill was sent through Parliament. This Bill was debated and amended by a Select Committee, the membership of which was named on December 5, 2005. The members were Katy Clark, Kelvin Hopkins, Sian James, Alan Meale, Linda Riordan and Sir Peter Soulsby (Labour); Brian Binley, Philip Hollobone and Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative) and John Pugh (Liberal Democrat). In February 2008 the Bill moved to the House of Lords where it was debated, amended and scrutinised by a Committee of peers. The Bill received Royal Assent on 22 July 2008 as the Crossrail Act 2008.

Some commentators have noted the apparent absence of Crossrail from the Government white paper Delivering a Sustainable Railway published on July 24 2007. However, the paper itself notes that the scheme is beyond its scope, which only covers projects to be delivered as part of the 2009-2014 "High Level Output Specification" period.

In November 2008, while announcing an agreement for a £230m contribution from BAA, transport minister Lord Adonis confirmed that funding was still in place in spite of the global economic downturn.

Stations

West of Paddington

Maidenhead Branch

Heathrow Branch

The Maidenhead and Heathrow branches join up at Airport Junction, between the stations of West Drayton & Hayes and Harlington.

Central section (tunnelled)

East of Whitechapel

Romford Branch

Abbey Wood Branch

Alternative proposed routes

Aylesbury Branch

This branch would have taken over Metropolitan and Network SouthEast lines from Baker Street and Marylebone to Aylesbury (including Chesham branch). Crossrail would run via the Dudden Hill line or a tunnel to Neasden Junction, where it would run to Harrow using the fast mainlines. The fast lines north of Harrow would be exclusively used by Crossrail trains. A new station would have been built at Northwood to allow an interchange between Met and Crossrail lines. The Metropolitan line would have terminated at Rickmansworth instead of Amersham. A few NSE services to Aylesbury left would have been routed via High Wycombe and Princes Risborough.

Richmond Branch

This branch would have taken over District line services from Turnham Green to Richmond, and then beyond onto the railway station of Kingston via a tunnel. However, opposition from residents and politicians in Richmond, the expected cost and an insufficient return on the envisaged investment caused this proposed route not to be pursued in the hybrid Bill

Hounslow Branch

Following the decision to halt progress on development on a Richmond branch, Hounslow council have attempted to get a route from Paddington through to Hounslow using an existing railway route (so no tunnelling is required).

Chelsea-Hackney line (Crossrail line 2)

Cross London Rail Links Ltd has inherited London Underground's aborted "Chelsea-Hackney Line" plans, sometimes also referred to as the "Merton-Hackney". A route for this has been safeguarded since 1991, and a 2007 consultation to renew the safeguarding gives the following route:

Currently this line is known as the Chelsea - Hackney line and will not be built until after Crossrail.The current scheme is somewhat vague therefore it has not been decided whether it will be built to National Rail or London Underground standards and take existing commuter services. The route protection also includes a branch south from Victoria Station underneath Battersea Park in the direction of Clapham Junction although not reaching that station.

See also

External links