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Crossrail

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Crossrail is a project to build a new east-west railway connection under central London, with one connection to the west and two to the east. Unlike the existing London Underground, they would be built to heavy rail rather than light rail standards; they would connect to existing mainlines. Services would consist of a local metro, similar to the existing north-south Thameslink route. It is intended that Crossrail will be fully integrated with the other London transport systems, with Travelcards being valid within the city limits. Crossrail has often been compared to Paris's RER system, although its scope is rather more limited.

Crossrail Line 1

Crossrail's first stage is to be an east-west line running under central London, connecting northern Kent and southern Essex with west London and the Thames Valley.

The west end of the line will be located at Maidenhead in Berkshire. Crossrail trains will call at all of the Thames Valley line stations between there and Paddington station. At Paddington, the line will enter a new tunnel under central London with new stations at Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel. These will be connected with the existing Tube lines.

The line will then fork east of Whitechapel. The northern branch will run from Stratford to Shenfield. The southern branch will call at a new station at the Isle of Dogs before crossing under the River Thames en route to Dartford and its terminus at Ebbsfleet, where it will connect with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

A service to Heathrow Airport via the existing Heathrow Express line is also planned.

A route from Paddington to Kingston upon Thames via Richmond upon Thames was also shortlisted but subsequently dropped, due to a combination of local opposition, uncertainty over the route, cost and an insufficient return on the envisaged investment. This would have run either overland or via a tunnel to the existing track through Gunnersbury and Kew (which would no longer be used by the District Line), and from there to Richmond and Kingston on existing mainline track.

This east–west route was previously proposed in the early 1990s but was rejected by Parliament in 1994. 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, and Kingston in the south-west. All have now been dropped in favour of the core proposal.

The central section of the line, plus the first few miles of the eastern branches, will be tunneled for a total distance of about 10 miles. This will be a difficult and expensive piece of engineering, due to London's geology and the very extensive tunnelling that already exists in central London. Its twin circular tunnels will have an internal diameter of 6 m (18 ft), compared with the 3.8m (14.5 ft) diameter of existing deep Tube lines. Unlike the Tube or the existing Thames Valley or North Kent lines, Crossrail trains will use neither third rail nor diesel-electric power, but will use conventional overhead power supplies (catenary in the open air and a fixed overhead bar contact system in the tunnels).

Current status

Crossrail Line 1 has been backed by the Government, which will introduce a hybrid bill for the scheme. The route is currently the subject of a public consultation. It is envisaged that the line will be open by 2012.

Although Crossrail has long had support from London's politicians and business community, it has been held up for a long time due to wrangling over finance. It is currently proposed that the £10 billion cost of the scheme will be met through a combination of public and (mostly) private finance, with London businesses contributing much of the funding.

Crossrail Line 2

Crossrail line 2 would include a new tunnel from Victoria station to Kings Cross railway station via Tottenham Court Road. This route was previously safeguarded for the proposed tube-gauge "Chelsea-Hackney Line" (later renamed "Merton-Hackney" route).

Current status

Many details of Line 2, including the route, stations and especially the finance, are as yet unclear. It is envisaged that it could begin operating by 2016, although this looks somewhat optimistic given the difficulties already encountered with Line 1.

Management aspects

Cross London Rail Links Ltd is the company responsible for creating Crossrail. It is publicly owned as a joint venture of Transport for London and the Strategic Rail Authority, and has £154 million of public funding, but the structure for funding the lines themselves (on the order of £10 billion) has not been finalised. It is hoped that services will begin on line 1 by 2012 and on line 2 in around 2016.

Stations

West of Paddington

Heathrow Branch

Central section (tunneled)

East of Whitechapel

Romford Branch

Dartford Branch

See also

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