Londoners show support for Crossrail 2

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Proposals to further expand London’s urban rail network have been given public backing, a consultation has shown.

Out of 14,000 people questioned, 95 per cent supported the principle of building Crossrail 2 – a new north east-south west line along the safeguarded route of the Chelsea-Hackney Line.

Transport for London (TfL) presented two possible approaches, a metro option and a regional option, for increasing capacity on London’s rail network, connecting the West Anglia Main Line and South Western Main Line.

The consultation marks another step forward in the life of the project, having already been awarded £2 million for feasibility studies to be carried out.

TfL’s managing director of planning, Michele Dix, said: “Crossrail 2 is vital if we are to support the predicted 10 million people that are expected to be living in London by 2031.

“The positive response we have received from the public and stakeholders for Crossrail 2 is really encouraging – it could be operational in 2030 but it is essential that work continues now to meet this target.”

3 COMMENTS

  1. Crossrail 2 is the current version fo the “Chelsea-Hackney line” some changes have been made to it for the metro version and the regional version allows a larger area to benefit and allows for larger trains to run along the route.

    Anyone from the UK could put forward comments as part of the consultation. However there are wider benefits than just to London. For instance if the Regional version is built it could be that in the future the South Western Franchise could run more longer distance services into Waterloo. Also when other projects (such as Thameslink) get new trains allows lots of trains to be used elsewhere in the UK.

    Also it should be noted that Crossrail 2 is not likely to be operational until 2030 (some 17 years away) and in the mean time there are going to be a fair number of other (non London) projects undertaken including Northern Hub. However it should also be noted that given the number of full 8 to 12 coach trains which run in the southeast (mostly in and out of London) it is not overly supprising that it is where there is a need for more invesment compared to places where the trains may only be 3 to 8 coaches long and full.

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