09.12.14
Government to invest £2m in Crossrail 2 business case
The government is to invest £2m over the next two years to support the development of a comprehensive business case for Crossrail 2, ahead of the next spending review.
Produced jointly by the DfT and Transport for London, the business case will be combined with a full options appraisal of all potential major transport projects in London, including an extension of the Bakerloo Line to improve connectivity in south-east London.
The news, which came out from the chancellor’s Autumn Statement, follows recent estimates made by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that the total cost of the project could be £27.5bn.
This price tag, which includes the costs of property and rolling stock, plus a 66% contingency or ‘optimism bias’ as required by the Treasury, is about £6.6bn higher than the figure predicted by Mott MacDonald in an engineering feasibility and capital cost study for Crossrail 2 in 2012.
But, despite the potential increase in cost, mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “Crossrail 2 is an essential infrastructure project and this report shows the range of financing initiatives we could employ to get it moving.
“We’ll now be discussing those financing options closely with London’s boroughs, business groups and other key players who have a stake in getting behind Crossrail 2.”
The latest financing news came shortly after the DfT launched a 10-week consultation on protecting land for potential Crossrail 2 development.
Transport minister Robert Goodwill added that the currently proposed route goes underground across central London, linking Tottenham Hale and New Southgate to Wimbledon.
The chancellor, George Osborne, said: “Our long term economic plan for London involves preparing now for the infrastructure our capital might need in the future. That's why I've said we should look at the case for Crossrail 2. This PwC report is a useful contribution to that work.”
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