"Crossrail may be scrapped say Tories"

[stethoscope]

This was reported a few days ago over on Tory Troll and there's this piece in the Guardian too...

Labour today accused the Conservatives of breaking a manifesto pledge only two days after launching their election proposals after a shadow minister admitted that a key rail project could be scrapped under a Tory government on the grounds of cost.

The Labour party seized on the comments made by Justine Greening, the shadow London minister, who told London's LBC radio that she "cannot guarantee" that the building of the £16bn Crossrail scheme – an east-to-west rail link across the capital – would continue under the Conservatives.

The Tories' opponents said Greening's comments contradicted a commitment in the Conservative manifesto, published earlier this week, which says: "We support Crossrail and the electrification of the Great Western line to south Wales."

Greening told LBC earlier today that she was unable to give "a line-by-line budget on projects across government, including Crossrail. Everything's up for review but we think it's important," she said.

Pressed on whether this meant that a Tory government would allow the Crossrail development to continue, Greening replied: "I can't give a guarantee that it will continue."

Asked if this meant it could be scrapped altogether, Greening said: "It's possible, but at the end of the day we've always said that we think it's an important project and actually the reason this is important is we want to be responsible, so we can't pretend that we can write an entire budget outside of government. We've said we'll do one within 50 days of getting into government if we get elected and we will then provide some clarity and certainty."

Greening's comments are likely to alarm Boris Johnson, the Tory mayor of London, who has repeatedly hailed Crossrail as a scheme which will create thousands of jobs and boost the capital's economy.

Is Crossrail going to end up being the great scheme that just never ever happens?

An East-West rail route for London was first proposed in the very late 80s, then cancelled in the 90s under the Tories during the recession. Throughout NuLab's time in government there didn't seem to be much talk of it again until 2005 when a new bill went through Parliament and with the potential costs to build it spiralling, talk of PPP and PFI assistance.

Despite the current economic climate, by last year it finally looked to be underway (claiming the Astoria in its path ), and was both a manifesto commitment for Labour and the Tories (although the Lib Dems don't seem to be saying ).

The Labour manifesto still commits to completing the project, whilst the Tories have now appeared to renege on it and instead they'll let you what's happening only after they should get into office!

 

[toblerone3]

Isn't this already under construction?

 

[Crispy]

Yes, but not enough for its future to be certain. There are plenty of examples of half-built railway infrastructure in London that got much further than Crossrail has so far...

 

[stethoscope]

Isn't this already under construction?

Yes... but that's not to say it can't still be scrapped or put on hold (again)!

 

[Dan U]

all those people in Soho who've been CPO'd will be pretty miffed if so

 

[Crispy]

IMO, the project is shelve-able until the boring machines are in the ground.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

They should just use the exciting ones up until then, then nobody will want to stop them.

 

[aylee]

But I thought that the money had been set aside by the Treasury for the necessary works?

FFS - the legislation is in place, all the planning processes have been through, millions of pounds of money have been spent and the Tube is (or at least, soon will be) at breaking point. London needs Crossrail and and Crossrail 2 (the Chelsea-Hackney line) to stand a chance of keeping in with its public transport needs. To cancel Crossrail now would be an act of cosmic idiocy.

 

[g force]

It is the Tories so I wouldn't put anything past them. But Crossrail is needed.

 

[Citizen66]

They'd better finish it as they closed The Astoria specially for this.

(I know it was the Mean Fiddler behind it but still a great venue for gigs).

 

[hipipol]

They should just use the exciting ones up until then, then nobody will want to stop them.

Nice

 

[PacificOcean]

They say it will shave 15 minutes going from West to East London.

Couldn't they just open another ticket window? It would be cheaper.

 

[stethoscope]

It's not just about travel time though, but also increasing capacity, easing other congested routes?

 

[Crispy]

It's not just about travel time though, but also increasing capacity, easing other congested routes?

yes. currently commuters coming from Maidenhead and Slough etc (and there are a lot) spread out onto the tube and fill it up. crossrail will get most of them immediately where they need to go (west end, city, canary wharf) - and the same for the commuters from Shenfield Romford etc.

 

[scifisam]

I was astounded when I read that - even though it's mostly Labour accusing the Tories of it rather than it being part of their manifesto, a couple of statements from the Tories themselves confirm that they're not committed to it.

But the works for Crossrail have destroyed Tottenham Court Rd. Getting into central London's become a nightmare on the bus if you used to go across that roundabout, loads of historic buildings have been lost, probably loads of tourist revenue has been lost, and the place looks like the aftermath of a bombing.

It'd be insanity to turn back now - especially since Tottenham Court Rd would most likely just be left as a building site for years.

They say it will shave 15 minutes going from West to East London.

Couldn't they just open another ticket window? It would be cheaper.

Ticket windows? Quaint.

 

[mincepie]

i see this like Boris and his bendy-bus pledge - On the whole bendy busses do work, there isn't any real current other alternative and besides in the medium term the operators are committed to them - so what ever he says, little will change. Likewise an east > west route is needed - or more capacity anyways, the (inital) work has started...and I don't see any current real alternative ideas.

 

[London_Calling]

Nonsense article. The return on investment is too good, and London too important to the national economy. This isn't expenditure, it's an investment yielding a great return.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

I don't think that refusing to commit on anything until a post-election budget is a sign of wanting to scrap Crossrail. It's just a sensible campaigning strategy, straight out of the 1997 playbook, designed to maintain internal party consensus and keep the manifesto attractively bland. And it all would have worked, if it wasn't for the fuckwitted public deciding that they liked Clegg.