What is Crossrail? |
Recent developments |
Construction |
Farringdon Station |
Liverpool Street Station
What is Crossrail?
Crossrail will be a new railway under central London linking
Maidenhead in the west with Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
There will also be a line to Heathrow, meaning the City will have a
direct rail connection to the airport for the first time. The City
of London believes that an east-west link across London is
essential for London’s competitiveness and is long overdue.
Crossrail will help to alleviate the current congestion on London’s
rail network and provide extra capacity to meet the anticipated
growth in employment and London’s population. It is anticipated
that the first trains will run on the railway in 2017 and the full
service will be built up over the following 12 months. When
complete, the railway will operate 24 trains per hour in each
direction through Central London during peak times.
As Europe’s largest construction project, the delivery of
Crossrail will provide a boost of at least £20 billion to the UK
economy as well as generating an extra 30,000 jobs. It will also
help secure London’s position as a world leading financial centre
by delivering a 10% increase to the capital’s rail capacity when it
opens in 2017. Employment in the Square Mile is predicted to
increase from current levels (approximately 340,000) to well over
400,000 by the time the railway is due to begin operation, and
Crossrail will therefore provide a timely boost to capacity on
London’s rail network.
View
maps of the route here. Details of the specific route alignment
in the City of London can be found in the
Crossrail
Context Report. The project is being promoted by Crossrail Ltd
(CRL) which was a 50/50 joint venture company between Transport for
London (TfL) and the Department for Transport (DfT) until 5
December 2008 when it became a fully owned subsidiary of TfL.
The main Crossrail
website contains an overview of the Bill process, details of
the construction phase and other useful information. Further
information is available from the
Crossrail Public
Helpdesk.
Recent developments
The Crossrail Act received Royal Assent in July 2008. This
legislation provides for the construction, maintenance and
operation of the railway.
The
full Act can be viewed online here.
The Crossrail Act gives the nominated undertaker ‘deemed’
planning permission for the authorised works, subject to conditions
set out in Schedule 7 which requires additional plans and
specifications for the design to be approved by relevant local
planning authorities. Over-site development, such as above the new
Farringdon East station entrance in Lindsey Street, is not covered
by the Act and will be subject to the normal planning approval
process.
The Schedule 7 (S7) submission for advance works pertaining to
Liverpool Street station was approved in May 2009; the Heritage
Deed for Finsbury Circus has also been approved. The Lorry Routes
submission covering the whole of the City has now been approved, as
has the S7 for advance works pertaining to the Farringdon eastern
ticket hall.
The S7 for Broad Street Avenue was submitted in early 2010. The
S7s for the Broadgate ticket hall; Blomfield Street; Finsbury
Circus; Moorfields; the Smithfield Market Heritage Deed; and
Lindsey Street are all anticipated for submission in during 2010.
The London Borough of Islington has already granted planning
permission for a combined Crossrail and Thameslink ticket hall at
Farringdon (west).
In 2009, the City of London agreed to support a financial
contribution to the project of £350m, comprising £200m from the
City’s own funds, and £150m to be raised from businesses across
London . Now that the project is moving into the detailed design
and implementation phases, the City is working to ensure that the
final station designs are fit for purpose and that construction
methods are adopted which minimise disruption and inconvenience to
City residents and businesses.
The City has also held briefings to keep residents and
businesses informed of the progress of the project, and
participates in the Farringdon and City Community Liaison Forums at
which business and resident representatives meet with Crossrail on
a regular basis. Further information about the Community Liaison
Forums can be obtained through the
Crossrail Public
Helpdesk.
Construction
A Crossrail Context Report for the City of London was published
in January 2009. This document provides an overview of the works
that will take place in the City of London to facilitate the
construction of Crossrail.
This
document can be downloaded from the Crossrail website.
Construction has begun at Canary Wharf, Tottenham Court Road,
Paddington and Farringdon stations. The main construction works for
Crossrail in the City are expected to commence in 2011 and will
involve construction of the new railway tunnels and new Crossrail
stations at Farringdon and Liverpool Street. The large diameter
station tunnels which will contain the station platforms will be
constructed first and will subsequently be linked together by
tunnel boring machines which will construct the running tunnels.
These will be bored from Limmo Peninsula in the east and Royal Oak
in the west, converging at Farringdon where the boring machines
will then be dismantled and removed.
A number of worksites will be required to facilitate
construction. For Farringdon station, these will be at Lindsey
Street, the Smithfield Market basement, and Cardinal House (located
in Islington but requiring vehicular access from West Smithfield).
At Liverpool Street station, the worksites will be at Moorgate,
Finsbury Circus, Liverpool Street and Blomfield Street. The extent
of each worksite is contained in the
Crossrail
Context Report.
The City of London is currently working with Crossrail to
establish appropriate mitigation measures to minimise the impact of
construction activity on local residents and business. A number of
properties (at Blomfield Street, Moorfields, Old Broad Street and
Finsbury Circus) have been acquired for the Liverpool Street works,
as has property at Farringdon ( Charterhouse Square, Lindsey Street
and Long Lane). Demolition work is due to begin during summer 2010;
a full list of acquired properties in the City is included in the
Crossrail
Context Report (page 17).
Various changes to the designs put forward at the Bill stage are
being considered by Crossrail. These include revised proposals for
the Moorgate entrance to Liverpool St station (integrating the
Crossrail ticket hall with the current LUL ticket hall) and changes
to the Broadgate ticket hall at Liverpool Street. The designs for
Farringdon are likely to be slightly altered rather than
dramatically changed but it may be possible to reduce the need for
property demolition in Charterhouse Square.
Farringdon
station
The station will include two ticket halls. The eastern hall will
be located within the City at Lindsey Street and the western hall
(shared with Thameslink) will be located at Cowcross Street in the
London Borough of Islington. The eastern ticket hall will also
provide a second entrance to London Underground’s Barbican
station.
The entrance to the eastern ticket hall will be via a double
height space, occupying most of the frontage on Long Lane and part
of the frontage on Lindsey Street. The remaining frontage will be
formed by future over-site development. Part of the frontage is
also required for the discharge of Smithfield Market car park
ventilation and escape stair.
Access to the platforms will be by means of escalators and there
will be a number of lifts to provide step-free access to the
Crossrail platforms and the London Underground platforms at
Barbican station. The City’s Access Team has been in discussion
with Crossrail about the most appropriate options for providing
step-free access at this station.
Preliminary discussions have commenced with Crossrail about the
need for complementary measures such as improved crossing
facilities and streetscape improvements to handle the projected
increase in pedestrians in this area when the station opens. No
details of proposed over-site development have been submitted but
Crossrail have been advised that it would have to complement the
settings of the listed market buildings and the Smithfield
Conservation Area.
Liverpool Street
station
The Crossrail station at Liverpool Street will have entrances at
both Liverpool Street and Moorgate. The plans for the Liverpool
Street end of the station include the modification of the main
London Underground ticket hall and the construction of a new
Broadgate ticket hall at basement level with an entrance in front
of the UBS building in Liverpool Street (west). An underground
pedestrian link connects the Crossrail station with the existing
Network Rail and Underground stations, providing covered
interchange between all three stations.
The original plans for Moorgate provided for a new basement
level ticket hall next to the existing Moorgate LU station with
three street–level entrances. However, Crossrail are now
considering the provision of a single new entrance combined with
the existing London Underground entrance on the west side of
Moorfields. An initial assessment of the Moorgate proposals
suggests that they will result in the better integration of the
Crossrail and Underground stations but further evidence is required
from Crossrail to demonstrate that the station will have adequate
capacity to cater for anticipated passenger numbers.
The proposals at Moorgate may require the relocation of the
Keats Place footpath and revised access arrangements to Moorfields
Highwalk. No details of the proposed over-site development have
been put forward at this stage. Crossrail have been advised that
any proposed development would have to take account of the settings
of the adjacent listed buildings and the Finsbury Circus
Conservation Area, as well as possible effects on the Barbican,
including the need for suitable access to Moorfields
Highwalk.