13.11.07
What price Crossrail?
The government’s announcement that Crossrail has been given the go-ahead with a £16bn funding deal to secure its construction has been warmly welcomed by most interested parties.
“Crossrail should bring huge benefits to London, and by proxy, to the whole UK economy,” Cllr Merrick Cockell chairman of London Councils, was quoted as saying whilst RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “Crossrail makes sense from every angle. It will help ease overcrowding on other routes, get more people off the roads and onto public transport and give the capital a massive economic boost.”
John Cridland, deputy director-general of the the CBI, the UK’s biggest business organisation, said: “Business supports the Crossrail project and welcomes the government’s decision to give the go ahead.”
Crossrail will link Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west with Shenfield and Abbey wood in the east. It will include new stations at key city locations including Bond Street, Farringdon and Canary Wharf.
It will bring an additional one and a half million people to within 60 minutes of London's key business areas and is expected to carry 200m passenger a year, including a 54% increase in rail capacity to Canary Wharf and 21% more to the City. In total Crossrail will add 10% to London's overall transport capacity.
The total length of Crossrail is 118.5km, including 41.5km in tunnels. 38 stations will be served by the line and 24 trains an hour will run through the central section in each direction at peak times.
Work on the project will begin in earnest in 2010 and the first trains are expected to run in 2017. It will be Europe's largest civil engineering project and will provide London with a world class railway that supports its growth as a world-leading finance centre. The government claims it will help add at least £20 billion to the UK's economy.
The total project cost for Crossrail is expected to be up to £16bn in outturn prices - that is prices allowing for inflation during construction and fully inclusive of all project costs such as land acquisition, compulsory purchase and contingencies. The cost will be split equitably between the government, Crossrail farepayers, and the private sector
And this is where agreement ends.
“Businesses stand to benefit massively from Crossrail so it is only right that they should be expected to make a realistic contribution towards the cost,” said Bob Crow.
“We are deeply concerned by the mayor’s comments … that the risks of any overrun will be borne by his office – this means that London’s council taxpayers could be the ones bearing the risk,” said Cllr Cockell, whilst John Cridland said: “If the government is determined that there will be a supplementary business rate in London, it is vital that it is equitable, capped and does not create a precedent for other infrastructure projects. Business expects any supplementary business rate for Crossrail to be a fixed amount over a fixed period. The public sector must carry any risk of project cost over-run.”
It seems that everybody loves Crossrail. Apart from when it comes to paying their share of the bill.
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