£20bn Crossrail 2 project gains momentum

London Mayor Boris Johnson has set-up the Crossrail 2 Growth Commission to promote plans for the £20bn project. Business leaders are also backing the scheme and are calling on the Government to use the current Comprehensive Spending Review to provide the development funding needed to start building Crossrail 2 early in the next decade.

An open letter to a national newspaper backing the scheme was signed by the chief executives of Morgan Sindall, Mace and Turner & Townsend. The Commission will help maximise the benefit of the new railway by bringing together the London boroughs, county councils outside London and other key business and development stakeholders along the route to work together on how the railway can best support housing and job creation.

Johnson said: “Major projects take time to plan and prepare and with Crossrail 1 nearing completion, we must move quickly to the next transformational growth project which could see even more benefits delivered.

“Crossrail 2 will support up to 200,000 more homes and jobs, adding billions of pounds to the national economy and ensuing a prosperous future for the whole country.”

Crossrail 2 will support the UK engineering, construction and manufacturing sectors with a supply chain stretching across the UK, potentially supporting around 60,000 full time jobs.

This is in addition to the 18,000 who will be employed directly during the peak of construction and over 1,300 new jobs that will be created to operate Crossrail 2.

Sir Merrick Cockell, Chairman of the Crossrail 2 Growth Commission, said: “This new railway is imperative to the future growth of the Capital and across the UK and the Growth Commission will play a key role in helping ensure local development plans along the route meet their full potential.”

A public consultation will begin in the autumn, providing more information on the scheme including locations for work sites and station entrances.