Crossrail

For other uses, see Crossrail (disambiguation).

Crossrail logo

Crossrail logo

Crossrail is a project to build major 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.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown officially approved the project on 5 October 2007, after a funding deal covering the first line was worked out with various public and private sources, though this is not yet finalised. Following Royal Assent on 22 July 2008, Transport for London (TfL) is now the owner of Crossrail promoter Cross London Rail Links Ltd; previously it was a joint venture between TfL and the Department for Transport.

The first trains are to due to run in 2017. 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 and Oyster Cards being valid on the entire line (except for the Heathrow branch which will continue to be subject to special fares). Crossrail has often been compared to Paris's RER system due to the length of the central tunnel. Crossrail will be integrated with the tube network - it is expected that Crossrail will appear on the standard tube map.

Crossrail Line 1

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 River 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 extend the line to Reading and Ebbsfleet. The Reading route has been safeguarded by the Department of Transport, although it has been made clear that there is currently no plan to extend Crossrail beyond Maidenhead. Updating the existing safeguarding of the land to allow an extension to Ebbsfleet is still being considered.

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)[1], compared with the 3.8 m (12.5 ft) diameter of existing deep Tube lines. Rather than the four rail electrification used by the London Underground or third rail on the existing North Kent line, Crossrail will use 25 kV, 50 Hz AC Overhead Line, the same system as is present on the Great Eastern Main Line and the Great Western Main Line (only as far as Heathrow). The central tunnelled section will weave between existing tube and road tunnels[2].

Rolling stock

As many as 65 new trains are planned to be constructed for use on Crossrail. It is intended that these will be five-car electric multiple units, which will operate in pairs coupled together, forming ten-car trains. These are planned to have speeds up to 160 km/h (100mph) on the surface parts of the route and up to 100 km/h (60mph) in the tunnels. It is envisaged, as part of the government's rolling stock plan, that the stock for Crossrail will be similar to the new rolling stock planned for the Thameslink Programme and will displace other types of multiple unit currently used on the Great Eastern and Great Western routes for use elsewhere on the network.

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 High Speed 1. 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

A report by a committee chaired by David Barran in 1974 recommended, alongside the development of the Fleet Line to Fenchurch Street and the River Line project, two new deep-level railway lines, one linking Paddington and Liverpool Street, via Marble Arch and Ludgate Circus; and another linking London Bridge and Victoria. The cost of these two links, along with the re-opening of the Snow Hill tunnel to form Thameslink, was estimated at £300 million.

An east–west route was again proposed in the early 1990s but was rejected by Parliament in 1994. This service even went as far as preparatory work on rolling stock, with concept drawings for what was planned to be Class 341 trains released. 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 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 received Royal Assent on 22 July 2008. Construction will take from 2010 to 2017.

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.

Controversy

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. 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 English, Welsh and Scottish Railway Ltd (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. EWS have reserved their rights to pursue legal action citing violations of both UK and EU law. Such a legal action could delay Crossrail for several years.

There is considerable annoyance in Reading that Crossrail will terminate at Maidenhead, not Reading. [3]. However both the promoters and the government insist that there is nothing to prevent a later extension to Reading in future if it could be justified.

Authorisation

To give legal authorisation to Crossrail, a Hybrid Bill was sent through Parliament. This Bill was debated and amended by a Select Committee, the membership of which was named on December 5, 2005. The members were 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). The bill recieved Royal Assent on 22 July 2008 as the Crossrail Act 2008.

Some commentators have noted the apparent absence of Crossrail from the Government white paper Delivering a Sustainable Railway published on July 24 2007. 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 by Transport for London and has a £16 billion funding package in place for the construction of the line. Services will begin in 2017 providing the are no delays caused by unexpected legal, construction or financial difficulties.

Stations

West of Paddington

Maidenhead Branch

• Maidenhead
• Taplow
• Burnham
• Slough
• Langley
• Iver
• West Drayton

Heathrow Branch

• Heathrow Terminal 4
• Heathrow Central

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).
• 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)
• Woolwich (new station)
• Abbey Wood for Thamesmead (existing tracks will need re-alignment)

Alternative proposed routes

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. On the 22nd March 2007 the government announced that Woolwich would be reintroduced into the bill.

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.

Chelsea-Hackney line (Crossrail line 2)

Main article: 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:

• Wimbledon to Parsons Green, using the existing Wimbledon branch of the District Line
• King's Road Chelsea: new station
• Sloane Square Following a campaign by the local borough council, this interchange with the Circle and District lines was reintroduced in the safeguard.
• 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: see above
• 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 therefore it has not been decided whether it will be built to National Rail or London Underground 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.

See also

• Rail transport in the United Kingdom
• Superlink (railway network)
• Heathrow Airtrack
• RER

External links

• Crossrail - official homepage
• Campaign for Crossrail
• The text of the Crosssrail Act 2008 as enacted retrieved from the Office of Public Sector Information
• 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