CONSTRUCTION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
CROSSRAIL
In February 2013, business group London First and Lord Adonis published new proposals and route suggestions for the Chelsea- Hackney line, Crossrail 2, ahead of a DfT decision on the existing safeguarded route later this year. RTM talks to London First’s David Leam, executive director for policy, who has been leading on the work.
ajor transport projects are all about planning for the future, not for today. So even though construction work on Crossrail is only now getting up to full speed, thoughts are already turning to Crossrail 2, as it has become known – the Chelsea-Hackney line.
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The proposed new link, connecting south-west and north-east London via a tunnel, would open in the early 2030s and cost around £12bn. As well as improving services for people in those parts of the capital, the scheme would offer a huge
amount of congestion relief to stations including Waterloo, Victoria, Euston, Kings Cross, St Pancras and Clapham Junction.
London First, a business group pressing for investment in Crossrail 2, has launched a new report with former transport secretary Lord Adonis making the case for a specifi c new route that would link Surrey to Hertfordshire via a new central tunnel between Wimbledon and Tottenham, with a spur to Alexandra Palace.
Key endorsement
On the day the London First report was released, Network Rail endorsed it fully.
David Higgins said: “If the capital’s economy is to continue to thrive then we must plan now, together, for the transport infrastructure requirements of London’s future.
“Our projections show that by 2031 we will need to accommodate 36% more commuters into London each day. Network Rail is already delivering the biggest capacity improvement programme since the Victorian era, but even that will not be enough on some routes.
“A regional Crossrail 2 scheme will provide the capacity we need to provide for the commuters of the future, providing extra capacity to and through central London and easing overcrowding on the already congested routes into Waterloo and Liverpool Street.”
54 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 13
David Leam of London First has been leading on the work, and told RTM: “We’re in the midst of great projects, like Thameslink and Crossrail,
which by the end of the decade will be in place and up-and-running.
“We’ve made good progress with the Tube upgrades, but London’s growth is such that with 1.5m more people and 700,000 more jobs by 2030, we need to look ahead to what’s next.
“On that south-west to north-east alignment we can see major problems of congestion on both the national rail network, particularly those South West Trains commuter services into Victoria and Waterloo, and on some of the major Tube lines: Victoria, Piccadilly, Northern – right through the centre.
“After Crossrail and Thameslink, people are now less scared than they used to be; they think ‘this is something we know how to do’.”
HS2 and the Crossrail 2 business case
Euston being chosen as the London terminus for HS2 has defi nitely pushed Crossrail 2 up the priority list, as it will become an even more busy and congested station.
But Leam added: “It’s absolutely not the case that HS2 causes a problem and creates the need for Crossrail 2. Crossrail 2 is a response to the challenges of growth in London and the scale of growth in London that is forecast and the very real problems of congestion.
“HS2 adds to that, it doesn’t cause it.”
Above: Waterloo station is among those that will benefi t from the congestion relief offered by Crossrail 2
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