Londoners Await Crossrail Business Case Review

It must be a sobering thought for the Government that the capital cost of Crossrail is equivalent at current rates of exchange to the American plan for renewal of Iraq's infrastructure.

Though it is understood that the report of Adrian Montague's inquiry into the business case for London's Crossrail project has been submitted to the Secretary of State for Transport, nothing has so far been made public about the content of the report.

But it is said to constitute a thorough inquiry into every aspect of the proposal, and that Ministers want time to study the conclusions fully before making them public.

Adrian Montague of Network Rail and his team which includes Hugh Norie who heads Mott Parsons Gibb and is the Government's Project Representative for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, were asked to evaluate the Crossrail business case and to give an independent view of its deliverability and value for money.

As Alistair Darling the Transport Secretary said last year when the team was given its terms of reference, the cost estimate put forward by the Cross London Rail Link company is very high, a forecast of £10 billion not including finance charges which in themselves will be formidable.

It must be a sobering thought for the Government that the capital cost of Crossrail is equivalent at current rates of exchange to the American plan for renewal of Iraq's infrastructure.

But given appropriate terms, there will be no lack of money for Crossrail.

The core scheme in tunnel has immense potential value for London's business community.

The Corporation of London, administrator of the famous financial square mile of the City, regards Crossrail as the most important transport proposal for Central London at the present time.

Michael Snyder, Chairman of the Corporation's policy and resources committee, has said it is impossible to overstate its importance for the capital's future prosperity.

If London doesn't tackle its transport difficulties, he said, it would jeopardise the City's status as the world's most important international financial centre.

That would indeed be a high price to pay for inaction.

The key question, and one which Adrian Montague's team was asked to explore rather than answer, is how much of the cost of Crossrail might be justified from the taxpayer - in other words, The Treasury - and how much might be raised from non-Government sources.

The whole cost could undoubtedly be raised from non-Government sources as it was for the Channel Tunnel, but as recent disclosures by Eurotunnel reveal this is not a good formula for a viable scheme.

The bankers need the reassurance provided by a Government stake, and the guarantees which would reduce the risk and thus the interest burden on the whole project.

Are there any better ways of delivering Crossrail that would offer better performance than the proposals set out in the company's business case? If there is an answer to that question, we will have to wait until the report is published to find out.

Crossrail engineering investigations continue Meanwhile, Crossrail's Chief Executive, Norman Haste, is pursuing his inquiries into the prospect of Crossrail crossing the River Thames in tunnel at Woolwich.

Boreholes are to be drilled along the tunnel alignment from a platform in the river.

This will be planned once the geophysical data derived from the recent riverbed survey has been processed.

The tunnelling industry is likely to be busy on this stretch of the river if plans now in hand go ahead.

The work for Crossrail was executed in partnership with the Docklands Light Railway which itself is planning to drive a tunnel a short distance to the east of this one as part of its Woolwich extension.

On the other side of London, the name of Crossrail has been taken, but not in vain, by the Xrail group of residents at Richmond which has submitted alternative proposals for the dive-under planned for the Richmond-Kingston corridor.

This controversial issue was raised by Dr Jenny Tonge in an adjournment debate in the House of Commons, and her representations appear to have borne fruit.

Crossrail has subsequently shown itself willing to have another look at this element in the scheme.

It will of course be of the utmost interest to Xrail, gifted as it is with a talented engineering component, to see what Adrian Montague's report says about this.

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