Crossrail Review
Contents From the Chairman ...... 2 Crossrail - Investing in London's future...... 2 A. Introduction ...... 5 CLRL's Business Case and the case for Crossrail...... 5 Government response to the CLRL Business Case...... 6 Composition of the Review Team ...... 7 Approach to Review ...... 7 B. Evaluation of the CLRL benchmark scheme...... 8 Deliverability ...... 8 Scope...... 9 Costs and revenues...... 13 Value for money ...... 34 Funding and financing ...... 38 Overall assessment of CLRL's Business Case ...... 48 C. Alternative Means of Delivering a Crossrail project ...... 51 Improvement to the Benchmark Scheme itself ...... 51 Staging ...... 52 Alternative schemes ...... 54 London Regional Metro (LRM)...... 64 Managing the funding gap ...... 68 D. Conclusions and next steps ...... 75 Crossrail Preliminary Timelines ...... 80 Annex A: List of review team members ...... 83 Annex B: List stakeholders seen in the course of the review ...... 84
1 Crossrail Review
From the Chairman
Crossrail - Investing in London's future The concept of a new cross-London rail link was first mooted nearly half a century ago. Since then, Crossrail has, in one form or another, consistently been advanced as a strategic solution to London's transport needs. Since the last attempt to promote Crossrail, in the early 1990s, pressures on the capital's transport infrastructure have continued to grow. Passengers are faced with increasing congestion on the central London passenger network. The Government's Airports White Paper, 'The Future of Air Transport' will result in additional strains at Liverpool Street if a new runway is built at Stansted. And the Government's ambitious regeneration initiatives have created potential new demand for transport, particularly in the key Thames Gateway area. The Government provided substantial amounts of funding to Cross London Rail Links Limited (CLRL), a joint venture between the Strategic Rail Authority and Transport for London, to develop new proposals for a Crossrail link. This resulted in CLRL's submission of its Crossrail Business Case to the Secretary of State for Transport on 11 July 2003. In his response of 14 July, the Secretary of State announced the creation of the Review of CLRL's Business Case, which I have led. The Report sets out the Review's findings, but in summary: