London Crossrail now a whopping $32 BILLION?

That's what it's being reported as, now. Gordon Brown is backing this overinflated-costing project. (I'm linking Bloomberg; but they're not the only source.)

London to Get $32 Billion Railway to Help Aging Tube

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave the go-ahead for a £16 billion ($32 billion) rail line across London, the biggest U.K. infrastructure project since the Channel Tunnel, to ease the strain on the city's aging train network.

The railway, first proposed 18 years ago, will connect Heathrow airport with central London and then run 5 miles (8 kilometers) east to the Canary Wharf office development starting in 2017. Crossrail will be paid for with cash from the government and London businesses and from fares, Brown said at a meeting in Downing Street today.

The prime minister, who is considering calling an election to try to consolidate his Labour Party's support among voters, agreed to Crossrail after the government wrangled an extra £1 billion ($2 billion) from city businesses. The project includes digging two 14-mile (22-kilometer) tunnels beneath central London, and it's designed to cut travel time and ease crowding on the London Underground.

"London desperately needs more rail capacity," said Stephen Glaister, a transportation professor at the city's Imperial College. "Crossrail is the backbone of all the long- term plans to deliver that capacity."

The railway is forecast to carry 200 million passengers a year. Mayor Ken Livingstone has said that without it, the city's bus and train network would become dangerously crowded. London's population of 7.5 million residents is forecast to reach 8.1 million by 2016.

"Journeys Easier"

The 144-year-old London Underground railway carried 1 billion passengers last year for the first time. Stations such as Covent Garden are frequently shut because of crowds and trains are packed during morning and afternoon rush hours.

"There are quite a lot of people whose journeys will be made easier" because of Crossrail, said Christian Wolmar, the author of "Fire and Steam," a history of Britain's railways. "It will relieve pressure on some of the stations. It's a massive project."

Crossrail dwarfs the city's plan for the 2012 Olympics, which has a £9.3 billion ($18.6 billion) budget for stadiums, and Heathrow Airport's new £4.3 billion ($9.6 billion) Terminal 5. The 31-mile-long Channel Tunnel connecting Britain and France cost £9.5 billion ($19 billion) when it was completed in 1994.

Bechtel Group Inc., the San Francisco-based construction company which built the Channel Tunnel, was hired in 2005 to oversee the design phase of Crossrail. Construction is set to begin in 2010.

"Enormous Importance"

"This is a project of enormous importance, not just for London but for the whole country," said Brown, who took over from Tony Blair in June, in comments today.

Brown's lead over the Conservative Party narrowed in three opinion polls during the past week, raising doubts about whether he will choose to call a parliamentary election this year.

The government pressured businesses and the City of London, which governs the capital's financial district, to cover a £1 billion ($2 billion) shortfall. The City agreed to provide £350 million ($700 million), said the district's policy chief, Michael Snyder, who added that it also partly funded construction of the London Underground in the 1860s.

Canary Wharf will contribute £500 million ($1 billion) and £200 million ($400 million) will come from Grupo Ferrovial SA's BAA unit, the owner of Heathrow.

The so-called East-West Railway was proposed when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. The project was rejected as too expensive in 1994, when John Major was prime minister, and the plan languished until Blair's government introduced a new bill that's expected to be passed by early 2008.

"Dithering"

"Why has it taken Mr. Brown 10 years to commit to the funding?" said Theresa Villiers, the Conservative Party's shadow transport secretary, in an e-mailed statement. "His dithering has cost billions for the taxpayer."

The project comes as the government's tax revenue shrinks because of slower growth in the financial services industry. The U.K. had a budget deficit of £9.1 billion ($18.2 billion) in August, the highest for the month since records began in 1993, the Office for National Statistics said last month.

Livingstone said that Crossrail will spur economic development that will generate an extra £30 billion ($60 billion) for the UK's gross domestic product over 60 years through new jobs and business expansion and add £12 billion ($24 billion) in tax revenue.

The forecast expansion includes an extra 175,000 jobs in finance and business services in central London in the next decade and another 190,000 at Canary Wharf, which includes tenants such as Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup. Three new office towers are under construction there.

International Competition

"If we didn't build this, by the middle of the next decade firms would be looking to relocate from London to New York or Paris or Dubai," Livingstone said in an interview.

The journey time between Heathrow and Canary Wharf will be 43 minutes, compared with 70 minutes by London Underground, according to the Crossrail Web site.

The business supporters of the project include Land Securities Group Plc chief executive Francis Salway, MAN Group Plc's former Chairman Harvey McGrath and Charles Aldington, chairman of Deutsche Bank London.

Opponents include some central London businesses that are concerned that the construction will disrupt trade. Large London businesses will pay a property tax supplement of more than 3 percent, with the exact figure to be given in the government's spending review on Oct. 9.

Two Tunnels

Two tunnels 20 feet (6 meters) in diameter, or twice the size of those for London Underground trains, will be cut between Paddington in west London and the Isle of Dogs in the east. The tunnels will be as much as 98 feet below ground, under the Tube tunnels.

Other sections will run on existing tracks and there will be stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel as well as Canary Wharf.

The full line will run 74 miles from Maidenhead in Berkshire, west of London, to Shenfield in Essex in the east, with another branch running to Abbey Wood in east London.

finally , im sure they were talking about doing this when i was working there in the eighties . Was going to be a north -south line too if i recall .

David Benton wrote:finally , im sure they were talking about doing this when i was working there in the eighties . Was going to be a north -south line too if i recall .

I think I have seen a reference to a proposal as far back as the 1930s.
The North-South line is operating, sort of. It goes through a formerly abandoned tunnel from Farringdon to Blackfriars. They paid for it mainly be selling off Holborn Viaduct for development.

The Thameslink line is supposed to get a lot of investment to improve its speed and capacity by improving the south of Thames junctions which at present are a bottleneck.

i remember travelling through the thameslink . while the sharp curves are interesting , its hardly a high speed commute . interesting netherless .
Do they still use the lie that goes past the big exhibition center ??? cant remeber its name now , but used to be trains from brighton passing thru to the north ?

David Benton wrote:i remember travelling through the thameslink . while the sharp curves are interesting , its hardly a high speed commute . interesting netherless .
Do they still use the lie that goes past the big exhibition center ??? cant remeber its name now , but used to be trains from brighton passing thru to the north ?

That is the West London Line.

British Rail started sending a few Intercity trains through, but the privatised operators have stopped that. I once took a train from Brighton to Birmingham, and when I was studying in Birmingham I sometimes caught the Birmingham train at Clapham Junction.

The WL line is now used for trains from Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction - a useful linking service to the North london line. I use it occasionally.
Then Connex South Central started a service from Brighton to Rugby, but this has now been cut back to Watford Junction.

The West London line has been used for Eurostar trains going to the North Pole depot from Waterloo. I assume this function will stop when St Pancras opens in a few weeks.