Crossrail 1

Scheme Description

This is a new east-west railway running across London, linking existing services either side of central London by a new tunnel. New Central London stations are proposed at Liverpool Street, Farringdon (interchange with Thameslink and LUL services), Tottenham Court Road, Bond Street and Paddington with a link to Heathrow. The aim is for a peak service of up to 24 trains per hour.

The project would enable trains currently arriving from a variety of stations east of London to travel under central London to the stations listed above and out onto tracks west of Paddington to a variety of stations west of London and vice-versa. This would increase capacity of services onto London and reduce the need for passengers to interchange.

Specific works within Islington

• Section of the tunnel in the south of the borough.
• New station at Farringdon on the corner of Cowcross Street and Farringdon Road, with interchange to existing London Underground and Thameslink services.
• A temporary construction site at 38 - 42 Charterhouse Street. This involves the demolition of 40 - 42 Charterhouse Street, but not 38 Charterhouse Street.
• A permanent emergency escape staircase and shaft on the site of 40 - 42 Charterhouse Street.
• A new station entrance on Lindsey Street, within the City of London.
• A ventilation shaft on land south of Cowcross Street.
  
  

Powers and Timetable

The scheme is being taken forward by a new company called Cross London Rail Links Ltd (Crossrail), which is a joint venture between Transport for London and the Strategic Rail Authority.

The scheme is the subject of a formal Safeguarding Direction (September 1991). LUL and British Rail, who sought powers by lodging a private Bill in 1991, previously promoted it (the Bill was rejected by the House of Commons in July 1994).

• On 22 February 2005 The Crossrail Bill was deposited in Parliament and the Bill had its first reading.
• The Second Reading of the Bill took place on 19 July 2005. 
• The Bill was formally committed to a Select Committee, which began considering petitions lodged against the Bill on 17 January 2006.
• The Select Committee has considered petitions lodged against the Bill and on 25 July 2006 announced its interim decisions on the petitions it had heard up to that date. The Government reposnded to these decisions on 11 October 2006.
• Now that the deadline for petitioning against the Bill deposited in February 2005 and the three groups of amendments of provisions has passed, no more petitions can be lodged to be considered by the Select Committee in the House of Commons.
• The Bill will go before a Select Committee in the House of Lords in due course, and at that stage petitions can again be lodged against the Bill.

More information concerning this can be found on the Crossrail and DfT websites in the link on the right.

The Council supports Crossrail  in principle but has petitioned against a number of points, particularly in the Farringdon area that are felt to cause major and unnecessary disruption to business and residents. The Council formally approved the deposit of a petition at the Council meeting on 28 June 2005, see the Crossrail and Thameslink report under the useful websites link on the right.

For more information contact:

Cross London Rail Links Ltd
1 Butler Place
London SW1H 0PT
24 Hour helpline: 0845 602 3813
Tel: 020 7941 7600
Fax: 020 7941 7703
Email: info@crossrail.co.uk