CrossRail 2

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

London is one of the most important cities on the planet and the main driver for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) economy, you can't and shouldn't prevent a city from growing, it's a healthy sign but the infrastructure needs to keep up.

Is this not more or less a zero-sum game? Does 'not investing massive amounts of money in expanding public transport' equate to 'prevent[ing] a city from growing'?

Cities like Bristol have been extremely successful in reinventing themselves and are now booming - it's for others to follow their example and catch up, not the leader to slow down. We all benefit from a strong London.

There are no other cities like Bristol, and Bristol has not reinvented itself - it has been slowly growing and adapting (not always in good ways) for the last thousand years. That aside, the currently funded transport schemes there look pretty parsimonious and unambitious compared with what's being spent elsewhere.

Don't we also benefit from a strong Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool..?

[TonyK]

Err ... no views expressed here?   Anyone??

We're getting MetroBust in Bristol...

[ChrisB]

Got the go-ahead in today's budget

[JayMac]

Posted in error. Getting my Crossrails and Metrobuses mixed up.

[paul7575]

Deleted, complete misunderstanding, the above post was mistakenly nothing to do with Crossrail 2...

[JayMac]

Yes, sorry.

I got confused. I'm blaming the lunchtime drinks.

[grahame]

From New Civil Engineering

Cancelling Crossrail 2 will ‘cripple’ Northern line, DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) warned

London Underground’s Northern line will “simply cripple” due to “chronic overcrowding” if Crossrail 2 is not built, London Assembly Transport Committee deputy chair Caroline Pidgeon has warned.

Responding to government commitments to rebalance infrastructure investment in the Midlands and the North, Pidgeon warned of the implications of scrapping the proposed line connecting north and south London.

She said: “Without Crossrail 2 many Tube stations, especially on the Northern line, will simply cripple over due to chronic overcrowding.  These stations will have no choice but to resort to regular temporary closures and other measures such as the introduction of one-way systems.

“Without Crossrail 2 overcrowding on trains will also become even more severe for thousands of commuters every day.”

She added: “Despite my enthusiasm for Crossrail 2 we can’t hide away from the fact that this new Government has in so many ways set itself against London. Moreover even before the General Election there were clear indicators that its enthusiasm for Crossrail 2 was waning.

“The failure of [former transport secretary] Chris Grayling in particular to champion the project has been clear for a number of years.

[Noggin]

That may be true, but there's no way politically that it can be seen to go ahead:

a) Before the core of the Elizabeth Line is open
b) Before a "big ticket" item of equivalent value for the North of England (like HS3)

I guess that the Government would also prefer that there was a Conservative mayor in office