Crossrail London, how do we know it will happen until we see the works starting?

Question

Crossrail London, how do we know it will happen until we see the works starting?

Answer 1

It's curious how London always gets the money... it has God knows how many miles of railway track already!  

In the latest spending figures, most of the railway finance goes to... London.  

I think a better idea if we were to improve rail in this country would be to reopen the Great Central mainline (built to European loading gauge, discarded 1966.) Then we could run international freight to Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester without having to incur cost and delay changing trains in Folkestone.  Get more lorries off the road and more freight through the Channel Tunnel!

Answer 2

It will not happen... perhaps in twenty years from now.. the transport system in London is falling apart we don't need another tax guzzling railway,  better try and get the system we have at the moment run like it used to be and improve the roads

Answer 3

I think that this project will now go ahead. All political parties want it and don't forget Mayoral elections are coming up next year. I have some sympathy with the comments about more money being thrown at London, particularly with all the money going for the Olympics. However, there is no doubt but that this line is needed and should have been built years ago. I can't see that the old Great Central line would ever be rebuilt, Crossrail or no Crossrail. All other considerations apart, much of the right of way through Rugby, Leicester and Nottingham has been destroyed or built on. And further, there is no need for a change of locos at Folkestone for freight traffic using the tunnel. The class 92 locos were built especially for this service but since there is little freight traffic through the tunnel at the moment, many have been stored. The costs of using the tunnel for freight have become uneconomic.

Answer 4

It won't happen? It's already been approved!

They'll need to get all the approvals, permissions, compulsory land purchases etc first. All the planning has to be done. Then somebody starts with a golden shovel - probably in several years time. It'll be finished long after the Olympics - and it would have been extremely useful for use during the Olympics but that's the Labour government for you.

No doubt there'll be problems along the way, such as undiscovered tunnels, sewers, cables etc which will need to be rerouted and may cause delay.

In the meantime, Reading station is due to be remodelled. The main bulk of that should be finished before Crossrail but delays to that could impact Crossrail.

Answer 5

This has been planned since the mid 1970's. I would say Don't hold your breath!!

Answer 6

My personal view is that it will not happen. Like so many of this governments new roads/improvement plans, it will be shelved until forgotten about, then binned.

Answer 7

Look on the Network Rail Website. we are already taking on staff like this one: IRC276195 Programme Manager, distribution networks contracts and procurement Contracts and Procurement Crossrail London, GB 22-Oct-2007 Full Time

https://ebus2.networkrail.co.uk/OA_HTML/...

Also all the funding has been agreed by the differant parties. I gather that some of the ground work will be starting next year.