Why London and the UK need Crossrail

Crossrail will deliver real economic benefits to London and the UK. Last October Colin Buchanan and Volterra Consulting produced a detailed report entitled ‘The Economic Benefits of Crossrail' that sets out these: http://www.volterra.co.uk/publications/07/economic_benefit.pdf

 

In summary the benefits of Crossrail are as follows:

  • Generate net agglomeration benefits between £36bn to £67bn PV (present value) to UK GDP over 60 years - in the long term Crossrail pays for itself
  • Additional national tax revenues of at least £14.8bn and time saved to business valued at £4.86bn
  • Help maintain London as a world city and centre of global finace, and enable the intensification of key sectors so the Capital's leading role can be retained for the next 20 years and beyond
  • Generate 30,000 jobs in the business and finance sectors, which would not be created without Crossrail
  • Provide a gateway to the rest of the UK
  • Increase public transport capacity by 10 per cent
  • Provide 24 trains per hour at peak times in each direction (ie = 48 trains) from Paddington to Whitechapel - this is 78,000 passengers twice the capacity of the Jubilee line
  • Support the building of thousands of more homes particularly in east London and the Thames Gateway
  • Spur regeneration across important areas for development and generate thousands of jobs

For further details on the benefits of Crossrail and its connection with other transport developments in London please see the Transport of London website: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/networkandservices/2041.aspx

Why London and the UK need Crossrail