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Crossrail logo
'Crossrail' is a project to build new railway connections under central London. The name is also used to refer to the first route proposed by the project, which is based around an east-west tunnel from Paddington to Liverpool Street station, and more formally known as 'Crossrail Line 1'.
A bill seeking permission to build this line is currently progressing through parliament, and funding has yet to be secured. The most optimistic construction timetable would see it opened around 2015.
Trains would run at metro-style high frequencies, complementing the existing north-south Thameslink route. Crossrail ticketing is intended to be integrated with the other London transport systems, with Travelcards being valid within Greater London. Crossrail has often been compared to Paris's RER system due to the length of the central tunnel.
Crossrail Line 1
A map of Crossrail Line 1.
This map does not show a station at Woolwich, which has since been added to the plans (see below).
The first line is based around a new pair of east-west tunnels under central London connecting the Great Western Main Line near Paddington to the Great Eastern Main Line near Stratford. A second eastern branch diverges at Whitechapel, running through Docklands and emerging at Custom House on a disused part of the North London Line, then under the Thames. Trains will run from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, taking over the existing stopping services on those routes.
The principal works are:
★ The central tunnels, with new subterranean stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel and Isle of Dogs, each offering interchange opportunities with existing London Underground, National Rail and the Docklands Light Railway services.
★ Another pair of tunnels, running under the Thames at North Woolwich and including a new station at Woolwich. This connects the reused former part of the North London Line with the North Kent Line.
★ Most existing stations on the route will receive platform extensions, and a significant number will be completely rebuilt.
★ Overhead electrification to be installed between Heathrow Airport junction and Maidenhead.
The House of Commons Select Committee made an announcement of interim decisions in July 2006 which called on the Promoter to add a station at Woolwich. The Government initially responded that it will not do so as that would jeopardise the affordability of the whole scheme but a subsequent agreement has made this possible.
There are also campaigns to have new stations built at Royal Docks and extensions of the line to Reading and Ebbsfleet.
Technical details
The tunnelled section of the line will be about 16 km (10 miles) in length: a difficult and expensive piece of engineering, because of two factors: London’s geology and the extensive tunnelling that already exists in central London. Its twin circular tunnels will have an internal diameter of 6 m (19.7 ft), compared with the 3.8 m (12.5 ft) diameter of existing deep Tube lines. Rather than the third rail electrification used by the London Underground or the existing North Kent line, Crossrail will use overhead 25 kV, 50 Hz a.c., Overhead Line in the open air and a conductor bar contact system in the tunnels, the same system as is present on the Great Eastern Main Line and the Great Western Main Line (only as far as Heathrow).
Dropped routes
Various routes have been included in earlier drafts of the Crossrail scheme, but no longer feature. These include:
★ A route from Paddington to Kingston upon Thames via Richmond was part of the "preferred route" published in 2003, but was dropped in 2004 due to a combination of local opposition, uncertainty over the route, cost and an insufficient return on the envisaged investment. This would conceivably have run either overland or via a tunnel to the existing track through Gunnersbury and Kew (which would no longer be used by the District Line), and thence to Richmond and Kingston on existing mainline track.
★ A south-eastern route beyond Abbey Wood to Dartford and Northfleet, connecting with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. This was rejected due to the need to share track with existing services, leading to potential performance pollution.
★ A north-western route to Aylesbury, taking over Chiltern services. This originally used the Dudding Hill Line, and later involved a new tunnel. Other branches in this direction to High Wycombe and Watford Junction were also proposed. None of these made it past the 2003 route consultation.
Previous proposal
This east–west route was previously proposed in the early 1990s but was rejected by Parliament in 1994. A number of alternative routes on the west side were considered, including regional services to Amersham and Watford in the north-west, Reading in the west. All have now been dropped in favour of the core proposal.
Current status
Crossrail Line 1 has been backed by the Government, which has introduced a hybrid bill for the scheme: the full text may be found here. The Bill is accompanied by an Environmental Impact Statement, plans and other related information; it is likely to be completed some time in 2007. If Parliament approves the Bill, construction will take from 2008 to 2015.[1]
Although Crossrail has long had support from most of London's politicians and business community, it has been held up for a long time due to wrangling over finance. It is currently proposed that the £16 billion cost of the scheme will be met through a combination of public and (mostly) private finance, with London businesses contributing much of the funding.
Some East London politicians object to the scheme which they see as an expensive west to east commuter service that will primarily benefit City and Docklands businesses, and bring enormous disruption to East London.[2] As a result, the tunnelling strategy was changed to remove excavated material by barge from Leamouth rather than the originally proposed complex conveyor system in Mile End.
Some freight train operating companies including EWS are opposed to the current plans because they would use up much of the remaining rail capacity within the London area, and do not provide the necessary extra capacity on connecting lines. This will make it harder to route freight services from the southern ports to the north and will increase freight transit times.
To give legal authorisation to Crossrail, a Hybrid Bill is being sent through Parliament. This Bill will be debated and amended by a Select Committee, the membership of which was named on December 5, 2005. The members will be Katy Clark, Kelvin Hopkins, Sian James, Alan Meale, Linda Riordan and Sir Peter Soulsby (Labour); Brian Binley, Philip Hollobone and Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative) and John Pugh (Liberal Democrat).
Some commentators have noted the apparent absence of Crossrail from the Government white paper ''Delivering a Sustainable Railway'' published on July 24 2007.[3]. However, the paper itself notes that the scheme is beyond its scope, which only covers projects to be delivered as part of the 2009-2014 "High Level Output Specification" period.
Management aspects
'Cross London Rail Links Ltd' is the company responsible for creating Crossrail. It is publicly owned as a joint venture of Transport for London and the Department for Transport, and has £254 million of public funding, but the structure for funding construction of the line (£10 billion at 2002 prices) has not been finalised. No dates are available for the start of services.
Stations
West of Paddington
Maidenhead Branch
★ Maidenhead
★ Taplow
★ Burnham
★ Slough
★ Langley
★ Iver
★ West Drayton
Heathrow Branch
★ Heathrow Central
★ Heathrow Terminal 4
''The Maidenhead and Heathrow branches join up at Airport Junction, between the stations of West Drayton & Hayes and Harlington.''
★ Hayes and Harlington
★ Southall
★ Hanwell
★ West Ealing
★ Ealing Broadway
★ Acton Main Line
Central section (tunnelled)
★ Paddington (additional facilities)
★ Bond Street (additional facilities)
★ Tottenham Court Road (additional facilities)
★ Farringdon (additional facilities)
★ Liverpool Street (additional facilities)
★ Whitechapel (additional facilities)
East of Whitechapel
Romford Branch
★ Stratford
★ Maryland (at first this station was not included, but as of 7 August 2006, a technique of selective door opening was agreed so that the station will be accessible on the route).[4]
★ Forest Gate
★ Manor Park
★ Ilford
★ Seven Kings
★ Goodmayes
★ Chadwell Heath
★ Romford
★ Gidea Park
★ Harold Wood
★ Brentwood
★ Shenfield
Abbey Wood Branch
★ Isle of Dogs (new station)
★ Custom House (additional facilities)
★ ''Silvertown'' (not expected to be opened straight away, but a possible station at a later date)
★ Abbey Wood for Thamesmead (existing tracks will need re-alignment)
Other proposed stations
Richmond Branch
''This branch would have taken over District line services from Turnham Green to Richmond, and then beyond onto the railway station of Kingston via a tunnel. However, opposition from residents and politicians in Richmond, the expected cost and an insufficient return on the envisaged investment caused this proposed route not to be pursued in the hybrid Bill''
★ Turnham Green
★ Gunnersbury
★ Kew Gardens
★ Richmond
★ Kingston
Hounslow Branch
''Following the decision to halt progress on development on a Richmond branch, Hounslow council have attempted to get a route from Paddington through to Hounslow using an existing railway route (so no tunnelling is required).''
★ Acton Central
★ South Acton
★ Brentford
★ Syon Lane
★ Isleworth
★ Hounslow
Woolwich
There was demand for a station, located in Woolwich, to be added to the bill, but the cost for this new station to be built would have been too great, and so, was rejected by the government initially. However, after talks between Greenwich council and Berkeley Homes on how to find the £162 million required, plans for a Crossrail station at Woolwich were resubmitted to the Secretary of State.[5] On the 22nd March 2007 the government announced that Woolwich would be reintroduced into the bill.[6]
The station is currently planned to be situated between two stations that are currently on the bill on the Abbey Wood branch: Custom House and Abbey Wood.''
Crossrail line 2
Main articles: Chelsea-Hackney Line
Cross London Rail Links Ltd has inherited London Underground's aborted "Chelsea-Hackney Line" plans, sometimes also referred to as the "Merton-Hackney". A route for this has been safeguarded since 1991, and a 2007 consultation to renew the safeguarding gives the following route[7]:
★ Wimbledon to Parsons Green, using the existing Wimbledon branch of the District Line
★ King's Road Chelsea: new station
★ Victoria: interchange with Victoria, District and Circle lines and national rail
★ Piccadilly Circus: interchange with Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines
★ Tottenham Court Road: interchange with Northern and Central lines and Crossrail 1
★ King's Cross St Pancras: interchange With Piccadilly, Victoria, Hammersmith & City, Northern, Circle and Metropolitan lines, national rail and Eurostar services
★ Angel: interchange with Northern line
★ Essex Road: Interchange with regional rail
★ Dalston Junction: interchange with East London Line extension (part of London Overground)
★ Hackney Central: new tube station with interchange to regional rail
★ Homerton: new tube station
★ Leytonstone: interchange with Central line
★ then taking the Epping branch of the Central line from Leytonstone to Epping, although previously the line was intended to take over the Central line section to Hainault.
Currently this line is known as the ''Chelsea - Hackney line'' and will not be built until after Crossrail. The current scheme is somewhat vague but will probably be built to National Rail standards and take existing commuter services. The route protection also includes a branch south from Victoria Station underneath Battersea Park in the direction of Clapham Junction although not reaching that station[8].
Completion is unlikely to be before 2025[9].
Further Crossrail lines
Some sources have suggested various routes for a "Crossrail line 3", however none of these have any official status.
See also
★ Rail transport in the United Kingdom
★ UK topics
External links
★ Crossrail - official homepage
★ Campaign for Crossrail
★ Crossrail Bill (1 of Session 2005-2006); Crossrail Bill (62 of Session 2004-2005)
★ Documents deposited with the Crossrail Bill
★ Transport Plans for the London Area - detailed history of Crossrail proposals
★ alwaystouchout.com - Detailed information and news about the current proposal
★ BBC News Online - 20/06/04 - Government backs £10bn Crossrail
★ BBC News Online - 20/06/04 - Will Crossrail beat the Tube?
★ BBC News Online - 13/02/05 - Crossrail link 'to get go-ahead'
★ BBC News Online - 22/02/05 - First Crossrail bill for Commons
★ BBC News Online - 07/04/05 - Election holds up Crossrail bill
★ BBC News Online - 17/05/05 - Crossrail plan in Queen's Speech
References
1. Orders of the Day — Crossrail Bill
2. Orders of the Day — Crossrail Bill
3. Government’s five-year plan, , , , Railway Magazine,
4. Additional stop for Crossrail
5. icSouthLondon report on funding for Crossrail in Woolwich
6. Greenwich Council on the Crossrail Woolwich station
7. Crossrail Chelsea-Hackney Line site
8. Crossrail Chelsea-Hackney Line Safeguarding Directions Consultation Drawings
9. Department for Transport Consultation on safeguarding revision for the Chelsea-Hackney line
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