Posted 15th May 2009 | 9 Comments

Top Tories split over future of £16bn Crossrail scheme

Tottenham Court Road

AS Prime Minister Gordon Brown marked the start of construction work on the £16 billion Crossrail project, and London Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson welcomed the scheme, another top Tory said the party could scrap it if they win the next general election.

In a letter to the Financial Times, signed by Boris Johnson and several other senior leaders of London’s business community, Crossrail was described as a “project that will benefit the whole of the UK.”

The letter adds: “The global economy is changing and for London to retain its position as a premier business, cultural and sporting centre it is essential to rebuild our Victorian Tube while delivering a 21st century Crossrail on time and to budget.

“Failure to do so simply risks repeating the mistakes of the past and would undermine the future competitiveness and success of our city. Let’s not go there. Let’s get digging.”

But fears for the future of the project surfaced in the House of Commons during a debate on Treasury spending. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper clashed with her Conservative opposite number Philip Hammond when she asked him if his party supported the scheme.

Mr Hammond would only say that all projects would have to be reviewed because of impact of the recession on the public finances.

“We believe that Crossrail is a good project. It fits very well with our agenda of improving rail infrastructure,” said Hammond.

“But do the government have no conception of the scale of the hole that they have dug? Every single programme and project will have to be reassessed and re-evaluated.

“Each project will have to demonstrate its value for money and its effectiveness in an extraordinarily tight fiscal climate created by the disaster that the government have visited on this country,” he said.

Crossrail involves digging tunnels from the east of London to Paddington station in the west of the city.

The tunnels will link to existing rail routes and stations, providing train services to Maidenhead, Heathrow, central London, Docklands, Shenfield in Essex and Abbey Wood in south London—a network covering 73 miles.

The Government has recently also protected the route between Maidenhead and Reading from planning applications so that it would be possible to complete a westward extension of the project — likely if electrification of the Great Western main line is agreed.

Crossrail construction is starting now with a 60ft pile being sunk into the floor on the site of a new station at Canary Wharf in London's Docklands.

The scheme is being financed by the Government, Transport for London and the private sector.

In central London there will be new Crossrail stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel.

There will be up to 24 trains an hour, each able to carry around 1,500 passengers.
The 10-car trains will be able to travel at around 100mph, apart from the tunnel sections where the limit will be 60mph.

The first trains are expected to start running in 2017.



Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

  • Rob Gibson, Crowborough, England

    They will argue that they are protecting tax payers money, but in reality it is Conservative party activists who pay the most tax, so they are putting their own pockets before the general interests of the country.

    Derek Monnery, Bradfield, Manningtree, Essex, England

    .....
    This is the problem with CrossRail. Get one thing straight, despite the laudible aim of moving more people across London...CrossRail is an expensive and poor value for money way to achieve this. CrossRail is about city land devevelopers getting rich using the need for public transport as the basis. It is all about the redevelopment of Central London property at Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon and Bond Street at the expense of the taxpayer.

    Justification for CrossRail does not add up - if you look closely at the CrossRail's own website you will find they make up numbers to suit their arguement (e.g. benefits to London were value at £20bn by 2008 the benefits were £36bn - I know we've had inflation but not that much!) and where do the 200 mill potential passengers come from? CrossRail does not add up and will make travelling the Tube (drain) even more expensive than it already is!!

  • Andrew Gwilt, Wickford, England

    For me Crossrail didn't operate in 1993 because of the plan to build the East-West route through Central London wasn't completed and the trains were just fake. 1993 was the year for Crossrail to operate a new East-West via Central London route but the plan was not subject to complete the project. 2017 sounds like the future for Crossrail but will it be planned before the whole project finishes and completed in 2017. The answer is "Unknown".

  • Mark, London, UK

    "For a city that is liable to the catasrophic effects of flooding in a future where sea levels continue to rise, a new underground railway seems rather foolhardy."

    Jee's, I think if London starts getting into that situation, the flooding of the underground system is the least of our worries! Besides, I presume you are talking about Storm Surge flooding from the English Channel. This wouldn't really affect Crossrail that much.

  • Eric Parkinson, Canterbury, Kent

    For a city that is liable to the catasrophic effects of flooding in a future where sea levels continue to rise, a new underground railway seems rather foolhardy. Indeed the money poured into the black hole of the London Underground system is similarly of dubious value. Surface (trams) and elevated railways would be cheaper, more accessible and less of a maintenance nightmare. Railways have been forced underground for the benefit of the surface (road) traffic. There is a simple answer.......

  • Andrew Kinge, Brisbane, Australia

    They are both as bad as one an another. The Conservatives all but destroyed the ability of Britain to make the trains it so badly needs now we ask Hitachi and Siemens to make the trains and we import them adding to the balance of trade deficit. They privatised the system which now costs more than it did to keep BR in existence. They have singularly failed to plan long term for the rail needs of the UK despite having 18 years to do so.

    Then come along a Labour Party which makes all the right noises but yet again delivers very little and manages to spend billions on its pet social projects but does not invest in the infrastrucure of the country. They then ruin the economy and we will not see much in the way of new infrastructure for at least a decade once and fingers crossed this project is completed. Ask yourself for all the "Prudence" Gordon Brown has been talking about and all the extra borrowing going on I don't see lots of new shiny roads and railways, and airports !! Plenty of Five a Day Co-Ordinators though !!!

    Despaired at both parties and I don't see things getting better. Finally fed up with life in the UK and so did something about it and got as have hundreds of thousands of people.

  • Lorentz, London

    The Conservatives (London Mayor Boris Johnson no less) have already killed the other London transport schemes and it is safe to assume that Crossrail is in their sights.

    However let's keep in mind why those schemes were cancelled, and why Crossrail is at risk of going the same way, and that is because of the state of the nation's finances after more than 10 years of mis-managment.

  • Brian Eastwood, richmond VA, USA

    I agree that the Tories cannot be trusted. Look at the record of Conservative governments as far back as the late 1950s into the early 1960s. Ernest Marples killed off the proposal in the 1955 Modernisation Plan to electrify the East Coast mainline and came close to doing the same for the Euston -Manchester and Liverpool electrification..Since those days the Tories have demonstrated that they just do not get it when it comes to the social and economic advantages of railway investment. Today they are trying to fool us into accepting that they want to see major electrification of the Midland and Great Western mainlines. I do not believe them.
    Before anyone complains that I am taking a partisan position let me be clear that I can just as easily make a devasting case against Labour politicians who also have a dismal record on transport.They don't get it either.

  • Jules, Lowestoft

    This presents a dilemma. Such projects are welcome. Investment is welcome

    For £16 billion pounds (if this were not spent on CrossRail) however one could open the national rail network to millions of those who have no rail access. Thousands of new stations, dozens of "micro projects" (new chords and quick fix line doublings) and dozens of medium scale projects (such as West-East rail). My politics tell me that there is a moral issue here: taxpayers in non-rail served areas still pay towards the investment in rail: but it is towards established markets (CrossRail) which will make lucrative business sense. Investment in CrossRail is not about bringing rail to areas deprived of rail services but instead supporting a business. (if you follow me). If I lived in Wisbech, East Dereham, Peterlee, Ashington, Leigh (Lancashire), Golbourne, and scores of other places I would feel pretty peeved at supporting London big business which CrossRail is doing whilst having no station or line of my own- CrossRail is NOT about public transport it is about supporting a business. That is what worries me.

  • Derek Monnery, Bradfield, Manningtree, Essex, England

    Remember that it was the Conservative party that pulled the plug on Crossrail in 1993. The same party is trying to scrap extensions to the tram system in Nottingham. Until the Conservative party is consistent in its approach to major infrastructure schemes that benefit everyone, no one can trust them. They will argue that they are protecting tax payers money, but in reality it is Conservative party activists who pay the most tax, so they are putting their own pockets before the general interests of the country.