Transport News

GtL Crossrail update

With the main construction phase starting, 2010 is poised to be a "huge year" for the £15.9 billion Crossrail project. This pivotal and much talked about rail link will increase commerce, breathing life back into town centres, linking central London to outer London and supporting the economic growth of London Thames Gateway.

Preparatory work on the tunnel entrance starts this month and by the end of the year, construction at all new central section stations will have commenced. The Crossrail tunnelling academy will have opened and Crossrail will also have appointed its key tunnelling contractors, ready to start work in 2011.

Crossrail will deliver at least £20 billion in jobs and economic benefits to London, provide new transport links, increase passenger capacity and ease congestion. Fourteen thousand construction jobs will soon be created, primarily among communities living along the Crossrail route. Work is now underway at Canary Wharf, Farringdon and Tottenham Court Road stations, with construction at the remaining stations on the central route beginning over the coming months.