Crossrail in numbers:
- The 100 km route will connect 40 Crossrail stations between Reading and Heathrow in the west to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east
- Around 200 million passengers will travel on Crossrail each year
- It will increase rail capacity in the capital by 10 per cent
- The total budget is £14.8 billion
- More than 10,000 people are currently working at more than 40 construction sites
- Eight tunnelling machines have created 42 km of new tunnels beneath central London
- Around 4.5m tonnes of excavated material will be used to make a new 1,500 acre RSPB nature reserve in Wallasea Island, Essex
The route:
- In west London Crossrail will serve existing surface lines stations: West Drayton, Hayes & Harlington, Southall, Hanwell, West Ealing, Ealing Broadway, Acton Main Line
In central London it will travel underground between: Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel and Canary Wharf
The benefits:
- Crossrail bosses say the line will bring an additional 1.5m people within 45 minutes commuting distance of London’s key business districts
- They hope to create 75,000 opportunities for businesses and equivalent to 55,000 full time jobs
- House prices around Crossrail stations could jump by 25 per cent in central London and 20 per cent in the suburbs
- Passengers can travel from Heathrow Airport to Liverpool Street in just 32 minutes (a drop from 55 minutes)
- A new Crossrail and HS2 hub at Old Oak Common on the border of Ealing, Brent and Hammersmith & Fulham could create 24,000 new homes and 55,000 jobs
- Transport for London is consulting on proposals for Crossrail 2 which would run from Wimbledon in the south to Alexandra Palace in the north - passing through King's Road Chelsea, Victoria, Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road and Euston
The concerns:
- Designs of new Crossrail stations have come under fire by Terminal 5 and Millennium Dome architect Lord Richard Rogers
- Passengers in Ealing Broadway have called for better access at the upgraded Crossrail station
- Hounslow Council has petitioned for a rail link from Hounslow to Crossrail and HS2
Timeline:
- Work started in May 2009 and the first services are due to begin in late 2018
- The majority of tunnelling should be completed by the end of 2014
- New Crossrail stations and upgrades to existing stations will take place between 2015 and 2017
- The first Crossrail trains will start to replace existing suburban trains in 2017
- The first Crossrail services will begin in central London in late 2018 with a full service from late 2019
