Crossrail 2 “should be taken forward as a priority” according to a report by the newly formed National Infrastructure Commission.
The commission recommended that funding should be sought for the new line, with a view to putting a hybrid bill before ministers by autumn 2019.
The report makes several key points: London should pay for more than half of the project’s cost, private investment should be harnessed to build the stations and there should be a clear housing strategy.
Crossrail 2 will connect Surrey and Hertfordshire with south west London via a tunnelled section between Wimbledon and Tottenham Hale and New Southgate.
Chairman of the commission Lord Andrew Adonis said: “By the 2030s London will be a megacity of more than 10 million people. Even allowing for planned investment and the imminent arrival of the east-west Crossrail line, the capital will grind to a halt unless significant further improvements are made.
We should get on with it right away, and have the line open by 2033.
“That’s why London needs Crossrail 2 as quickly as possible. A new north-east to south-west line would help relieve severe overcrowding across some of the busiest Network Rail stations in the country, and the most congested Underground lines and overground commuter routes.
“The commission has identified four crucial ways in which the scheme can be developed to ensure that we maximise benefits and increase deliverability: phasing parts of the scheme, fair funding with London paying more than half the cost, private financing to help build stations and, crucially, a clear, transformative strategy to turn the proposed 200,000 new homes into a reality.
“There is no good reason to delay. Crossrail 2 will help keep London moving, create hundreds of thousands of homes and fire regeneration across the city form north-east to south-west.
“We should get on with it right away, and have the line open by 2033.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the country can get stuffed as usual. The “Northern Powerhouse” myth is merely talk designed to shut us up when we say this. The “National” infrastructure commission is really the London Infrastructure commission.
You can guarantee that there will be no “pausing” followed by fictional “unpausing” of London schemes.
So Crossrail 2 could start in 2017 and to be completed at around 2020. Really?
Or to be completed by 2021 or 2022.
As in the article, a Hybrid Bill before Ministers by Autumn 2019 for completion by 2033.
Blimey. That is a long way off. I suppose it would be completed by around 2033.
Not really that far off, considering how long it has taken so far to get the plans ready to be rubber-stamped.
Ok.