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'Widen Crossrail' call
Dick Murray, Transport Editor15 Oct 2007
Crossrail must be expanded to bring benefit to the whole south-east rather than just London, a group of experienced rail managers said today.
New proposals would extend Crossrail as far afield as Basingstoke to the southwest and Southend to the East.
Carrying far more passengers and coping better with the huge forecast increase in rail travel it would prove selffinancing, said the managers.
There is mounting concern - including among some MPs - that Crossrail as planned will only bring limited travel benefit despite costing £16 billion of taxpayer and private sector cash.
Proposals to expand Crossrail, at an extra £3billion, come from Superlink, the failed rival scheme, which would have stretched further out of London.
John Prideaux, Superlink chairman and the man credited with rescuing the Channel Tunnel Rail Link when it was on the verge of collapse, said: "We remain concerned that so much money is being spent on a rail scheme that does so little for so few."
