FEATURE: CROSSRAIL
CROSSRAIL: THERE’S NO
STOPPING IT NOW
For Londoners, it is still just a massive building project causing disruption across the capital. But the scheme is fast gathering momentum and completion of this urban railway, which will set a new standard, is now only a mouth-watering half-decade away.
Words: Christian Wolmar
Sub Editor: Deborah Maby
D
eep below the streets of London, something quite remarkable is happening: the boring of the first major
full-size railway tunnel ever to go right under the centre of the capital. Crossrail is not only the biggest construction project in Europe, but it is also a railway that will set a new standard for urban railways across the world as well as relieve some of the pressure on the London Underground, which is carrying record numbers of people.
For many years, decades even, the fate of the Crossrail project, the heart of which is a new railway tunnel linking Liverpool Street and Paddington stations, was in the balance. In the late 1990s, a first attempt to obtain approval for the project was thrown out by a special committee of MPs because of financial uncertainty and it took years of negotiation by the two London mayors, first Ken Livingston and then Boris Johnson, to ensure money for the project was in place. Thanks to a special arrangement,
04 RailCONNECT
whereby the business rate for larger firms across the capital will be increased to help pay for the scheme, plus a huge dollop of £5 billion from the Department of Transport, along with various other sources of funding, the go-ahead was finally given in 2009. However, even after work started
that year, there were concerns that a new government might delay or scrap the scheme. Now, at last, there is no turning back as so much work has been carried out that scrapping the scheme would be unthinkable. In January, it was announced that the first section of tunnelling, between Paddington and Farringdon, will be completed by the end of the year and with no fewer than five tunnel boring machines now creeping their way under London, the momentum is unstoppable. Delays are still possible, and the opening date was set back slightly by the financial crisis, with it now being expected in 2019 rather than the year before. For Londoners, Crossrail is still just a building project on a massive
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