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Crossrail

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Image:Crossrail.PNG 200px|right|Crossrail logo '''Crossrail''' is a project to build a new east-west railway connection underground railway under central London, with one connection to the west and two to the east. It would be built to regional rail standards and connect to existing main lines. The most optimistic construction timetable would see the first stage 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, although its scope is rather more limited.

Crossrail Line 1
Image:CrossrailLine1Map.svg center|A map of Crossrail Line 1. According to the Bill (see #Current Status Current Status below) the following is a brief summary of the proposal: * The preamble to the Bill states that it is for "The provision of a new cross-London rail link ... by way of new railways and improvement of existing railways in existing railway corridors from Maidenhead, Berkshire, and Heathrow Airport Heathrow to Paddington station Paddington continuing in new twin tunnels under central London and diverging as two branches, one surfacing at Custom House then passing under the River Thames at Woolwich in twin tunnels and then continuing on the existing North Kent line to Abbey Wood railway station Abbey Wood. The other branch would surface at Pudding Mill Lane near Stratford station Stratford and continue on the existing corridor to Shenfield railway station Shenfield" * '''New stations''' would be built: ** In the central section at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel, offering interchange opportunities with the existing London Underground network lines, Thameslink and the Docklands Light Railway. ** On the southern branch at Isle of Dogs. Custom House station Custom House station to be "reconfigured". The Tunneled section from Paddington via Oxford Street to Farringdon, Liverpool street and Whitechapel is identical to the recently closed underground Post Office railway (MailRail) and suggests these tunnels should be used as a starting point, and the underground mail rail stations to be possibly used as the lines' Central London stations. There are campaigns to have new stations built at Woolwich, Royal Docks and extensions of the line to Reading, Berkshire Reading and Ebbsfleet

Technical details
The tunnelled section of the line will be about ten miles (16km) 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 (18 ft), compared with the 3.8m (14.5 ft) diameter of existing deep Tube lines. Rather than the third rail used by the London Underground or the existing North Kent line, Crossrail will use overhead 25 kV AC power delivered by catenary in the open air and a fixed bar contact system in the tunnels, the same system as is present on the Great Eastern Main Line and the Great Western Main Line.

Extensions
Over the period of the preliminary discussions, two extensions have been mooted: *A route from Paddington to Kingston upon Thames via Richmond upon Thames was examined but subsequently dropped, 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 extension to Dartford and Northfleet, connecting with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. This is not planned before 2020, if ever.

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 station Amersham and Watford in the north-west, Reading, Berkshire 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 [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmbills/062/2005062.htm 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 [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2005-07-19.1136.2]. 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, England East London politicians object to the scheme which they see as an expensive west to east commuter service that will primarily benefit City of London City and Docklands businesses, and bring enormous disruption to East London [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2005-07-19.1154.0]. Some 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 hard to route freight services from the southern ports to the north and 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 Party (UK) Labour); Brian Binley, Philip Hollobone and Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative Party (UK) Conservative) and John Pugh (Liberal Democrats (UK) Liberal Democrat).

Crossrail Lines 2 and 3
'''Crossrail line 2''' would include a new tunnel from Victoria Station (London) Victoria station to King's Cross railway station via Tottenham Court Road tube station Tottenham Court Road. This route was previously safeguarded for the proposed tube-gauge "Chelsea-Hackney Line" (later renamed "Merton-Hackney" route) and might take over the eastern arm of the Central Line east of Leytonstone. Many details of Line 2, including the route, stations and especially the finance, are as yet unclear. It is envisaged that it could begin operating by 2016, although this looks somewhat optimistic given the difficulties already encountered with Line 1. '''Crossrail line 3''' is still a very vague plan, but would be a tunnel running from Waterloo to Euston station, two major London termini. It would allow through-services from north to south. What route it would follow through central London and what stations would be built is still unclear.

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 Strategic Rail Authority, and has Pound Sterling £154 million of public funding, but the structure for funding the lines themselves (on the order of £10 billion) has not been finalised. It is hoped that services will begin on line 1 by 2012 and on line 2 in around 2016. Part of the large expense is due to incorporate a high (and extremely expensive) quality of architecture as specified previously on the Jubilee Line Extension. In addition, costs are added to by a reluctance to re-use either the Farringdon tube station Farringdon to Moorgate tube station Moorgate section of Thameslink or the disused Moorgate tube station Moorgate to Liverpool Street mainline station link, thus requiring tunnelling costs for the same route. This is in addition to the extra infrastructure that sub-surface stations require (escalators at each end of the platform leading to separate exits (because they are so far apart, due to the added distance caused by the escalators, etc.), new station buildings to cope with the escalators (which might also require demolition of some listed buildings located at the likely station entrance locations). Journalists covering the construction often comment that had it been designed to the same standards as the Victoria Line, it would not only be built and operational already, but would have cost no more than the public funding it already has.

Stations

West of Paddington
* Maidenhead railway station Maidenhead * Taplow railway station Taplow * Burnham railway station Burnham * Slough railway station Slough * Langley railway station Langley * Iver railway station Iver * West Drayton railway station West Drayton * Hayes and Harlington station Hayes and Harlington * Southall railway station Southall * Hanwell railway station Hanwell * West Ealing railway station West Ealing * Ealing Broadway station Ealing Broadway * Acton Main Line railway station Acton Main Line

=Heathrow Branch
= * Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3 railway station Heathrow Central * Heathrow Terminal 4 railway station Heathrow Terminal 4 * Heathrow Terminal 5 railway station Heathrow Terminal 5

Central section (tunnelled)
* Paddington station Paddington (additional facilities) * Bond Street tube station Bond Street (additional facilities) * Tottenham Court Road tube station Tottenham Court Road (additional facilities) * Farringdon station Farringdon (additional facilities) * Liverpool Street station Liverpool Street (additional facilities) * Whitechapel tube station Whitechapel (additional facilities)

East of Whitechapel

=Romford Branch
= * Stratford station Stratford * Forest Gate railway station Forest Gate * Manor Park railway station Manor Park * Ilford railway station Ilford * Seven Kings railway station Seven Kings * Goodmayes railway station Goodmayes * Chadwell Heath railway station Chadwell Heath * Romford railway station Romford * Gidea Park railway station Gidea Park * Harold Wood railway station Harold Wood * Brentwood railway station Brentwood * Shenfield railway station Shenfield

=Abbey Wood Branch
= * Isle of Dogs railway station Isle of Dogs (new station) * Custom House station Custom House (additional facilities) * Abbey Wood railway station Abbey Wood for Thamesmead (existing tracks will need re-alignment)

See also
*Rail transport in the United Kingdom *UK topics

External links

- Crossrail - official homepage
- Campaign for Crossrail
- Crossrail Bill
- 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 - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3910091.stm Government backs £10bn Crossrail] * BBC News Online - 20/06/04 - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3911005.stm Will Crossrail beat the Tube?] * BBC News Online - 13/02/05 - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4261701.stm Crossrail link 'to get go-ahead'] * BBC News Online - 22/02/05 - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4289139.stm First Crossrail bill for Commons] * BBC News Online - 07/04/05 - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/england/4421997.stm Election holds up Crossrail bill] * BBC News Online - 17/05/05 - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/4036327.stm Crossrail plan in Queen's Speech] Category:London's railways Category:Crossrail see Crossrail These are articles about the '''Crossrail''' project to create is a pair of new train lines, one east–west, the other north-east–south-west, that may be built in central London in the next few decades. {{catmore}} Category:London's railways

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