Crossrail gets green light

Europe’s largest civil engineering project is to set begin in 2010, after Gordon Brown today approved a £16bn funding deal for Crossrail.

Crossrail will run east to west across southern England, linking Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west with Shenfield and Abbey wood in the east via key City and Docklands stations.

The total length of Crossrail will be 118.5km, including 41.5km of tunnels. It will serve a total of 38 stations with 24 trains an hour running through the central section in each direction at peak times.

It will bring an additional one and a half million people to within 60 minutes of London's key business areas and is expected to carry 200 million passengers a year when it comes into operation in 2017. The government estimates it will help add at least £20 billion to the UK's economy.

Crossrail is to be funded by the government and the businesses that are set to directly benefit from the link. The parliamentary bill to secure the necessary powers to begin construction of the link is expected to get royal assent next summer.