Crossrail 2 should be funded this year, says government adviser
Crossrail 2 should be one of Boris Johnson’s top infrastructure priorities and get a funding commitment this year, according to a key government infrastructure adviser.
The National Infrastructure Commission released its annual report today, saying the £41bn north-south train line should immediately get the go ahead.
The project is under a cloud of uncertainty due to problems with Crossrail 1 – it is expected to open three years late and be more than £3bn over budget – and an increasing push by the government for more infrastructure spending in the Midlands and the North.
However, the infrastructure commission’s chairman Sir John Armitt said that Crossrail 2 needs to go ahead as a matter of priority to prevent overcrowding on London’s transport networks.
“The UK desperately needs a strategy that looks well beyond this parliament, setting out infrastructure policy and funding up to 2050,” he said.
“It must contain goals, plans to achieve them, funding to deliver those plans and deadlines for delivery.
“The government’s key priorities for 2020 should include confirming its plans to go ahead with Crossrail 2 and committing to fund it in the spending review 2020.”
Johnson promised to spend £100bn on infrastructure in his election manifesto, however this has so far been all earmarked on projects to “level up” the north.
The business plan for Crossrail 2 is currently under consideration with the Department for Transport, however there has been no indication from the government if it will go ahead.
The latest proposal for the north-south line would have it span from Broxbourne to Epsom and have stops in places such as Tottenham Hale, Dalston, Angel, St Pancras, Clapham Junction and Wimbledon.
The report said that this line would alleviate “significant challenges for London’s transport network” currently being faced.
London’s population grew by 240,000 between 2015 and 2018, contributing to increasing levels of overcrowding on the capital’s transport network.
It was revealed in November that the four busiest Tube lines – Northern, Jubilee, Central and Victoria – run at over 100 per cent capacity at peak hour times.
Several business and transport advocacy groups threw their support behind the report.
London First’s transport director Adam Tyndall said Crossrail 2 would “benefit the whole country”.
Richard Brown, deputy director of the Centre for London think tank, said: “Crossrail 2 is an essential project for London and the UK – it will connect underserved and deprived areas, relieve congestion in central London and on commuter rail lines, and support hundreds of thousands of homes and jobs.
“We hope it will be given the go-ahead this year, backed by robust project and cost management, and a financing package in which London will play its part.”
Paul Swinney, director of policy and research and Centre for Cities, said that transport investment in London would be much more effective than if that money was spent up north.
“[Crossrail 2] shouldn’t come at the cost of investment in other parts of the country,” he said.
“But transport investment is not the answer to the problems that places like Sheffield and Newcastle face, and so this type of investment will do little to improve their economies.
“Instead they need a different approach that focusses on skills investment in particular.”