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How Crossrail will work for Londoners
Ross Lydall, Evening Standard5 Oct 2007
Crossrail will provide six new central London stations, more than 14,000 jobs and direct links to the regeneration areas of the Thames Gateway.
But it will also mean years of delay and disruption for residents and travellers as it cuts a swathe through London to provide a high-speed link between Heathrow, Canary Wharf and beyond.
Dozens of residents will have to be rehoused for up to a year, hundreds more offered sound insulation and venues such as the Astoria in Charing Cross Road will be demolished.
Construction is expected to take six years, once preparatory work such as moving sewers is complete. Engineers have worked for years - at a cost of around £400 million - to resolve how to tunnel beneath the West End without causing chaos above ground. Their efforts have been scrutinised by a committee of MPs since January 2006 - a process due to resume next Tuesday, and which should eventually lead to the Crossrail Bill detailing the precise route becoming law.
Further planning consent will be required for the above-station shopping and office developments expected to subsidise the construction costs.
Crossrail has four distinct sections. Its central route involves more than 14 miles of twin-bore tunnels - at an average 20 yards below the ground - and a new crossing under the Thames.
The western branch uses the existing Great Western Main Line tracks between Maidenhead and Westbourne Park. The north-eastern branch will use the Great Eastern Main Line between Pudding Mill Lane (in Stratford) and Shenfield. The south-east section, including a new station at Woolwich, runs to Abbey Wood.
New central London stations will be built - with Tube connections - at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel. The Isle of Dogs will also have a new station.
The most significant upgrades of rail stations will be at Ealing Broadway, Southall, Hayes and Harlington, West Drayton, Slough and Maidenhead - involving new or lengthened platforms.
The tunnels will be large enough to accommodate overhead electric lines to power the 10-carriage trains, which will run at peak-hour frequencies of 24 an hour between Whitechapel and Paddington. Some 160,000 passengers are expected during the morning peak.
Each new station, excluding Whitechapel and the Isle of Dogs, will have two ticket halls to ease the flow of passengers.
Paddington train station will be closed entirely for two weeks - with trains terminating at Ealing Broadway or diverted to Waterloo. The closure of Bond Street station to both its Tube lines for up to nine months - though not at the same time - will cause a "significant impact", according to documents submitted to Parliament by Crossrail's promoters.
The work will take place at times to avoid similar closure of the platforms at Tottenham Court Road to avoid overcrowding at Oxford Circus. "Floating" tracks will be used to minimise noise when trains pass under West End theatres.
It will also be necessary to establish work sites in Oxford Street, near Bond Street station, in Liverpool Street and at Finsbury Circus, which will surrender much of its open space for years.
Ventilation shafts will be dotted along the route, including sites in Hyde Park and in the central reservation between the traffic lanes in Park Lane. Part of the Westbourne Park bus garage will be used as a depot for the tunnelling equipment - eight machines will eat into the London clay around the clock.
The benefits include a one to two per cent reduction in road traffic and 13,050 jobs - 8,700 construction posts and a further 4,350 indirect jobs as a result of "significant ripple effects". There will be a further 990 new jobs for train drivers, station staff, ticket inspectors and train depot staff.
QUICK GUIDE TO NEW RAIL LINK
• Crossrail was first announced in 1990 by the then Transport Secretary Cecil Parkinson - although the idea dates back to the 1940s.
• At the time it was thought that the scheme - somewhat smaller than today's project - might be completed by 1999.
• Costs had risen to around £2.6billion by the mid 1990s and the project was put on ice.
• Work is now due to begin next year and should be completed by 2017.
• Crossrail will run from Maidenhead in Berkshire to the west of London and as far east of the capital as Shenfield in Essex.
• Trains will run to Heathrow using the spur built for the Heathrow Express.
• As many as 24 trains an hour will run through central London on Crossrail's twin tunnels from Paddington to Whitechapel.
• Each Crossrail train is likely to carry around 1,500 passengers at peak times and an additional 72,000 people will be able to travel to and from central London every hour at peak times.
• Crossrail is likely to include London to Reading semi-fast services, now operated by the First Great Western train company.
Reader views (4)
Excellent news and long overdue.
Now, how about in future switching the focus to improving transport in this little place we call the rest of the UK.
- Richard, Oxford, 08/10/2007 11:38
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At last London and the South East is getting some of the required investment it needs. Pity it has taken so long to get the go ahead.
- Nicholas Newman, UK, 05/10/2007 22:34
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Billions on the Jubilee Line and Crossrail! When will the 300 metres of track to link the Chingford line to Stratford, and therefore Docklands, be relaid (it was taken up in the 1960s)? This will save thousands of people up to half an hour on their journey as well as reduce congestion on the Central Line and the DLR.
- Jeffrey Marsh, North East London, 05/10/2007 20:39
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Finally... well done Ken.
- Sean Kirwin, Bromley, 05/10/2007 18:17
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