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Britain backs 38 bln U.S. dollar plan for new cross-London rail line

Xinhua, March 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UK National Infrastructure Commission on Thursday released a report supporting a 27-billion-pound (38 billion U.S. dollars) investment in a new and upgraded rail line running across London to cater for forecast increases in public transport usage between now and 2030.

The line named Crossrail 2 would run from the northeast of the city to the southwest and would aim at helping to deal with increased congestion caused by a projected increase in London's population from 8.6 million people in 2014 to 10 million by 2030.

Andrew Adonis of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) said: "By the 2030s, London will be a megacity of more than 10 million people. Even allowing for planned investment and the imminent arrival of the east-west Crossrail line, the capital will grind to a halt unless significant further improvements are made. That's why London needs Crossrail 2 as quickly as possible."

Major rail-based infrastructure projects in London currently underway include the Elizabeth Line, formerly known as Crossrail 1, an almost completely new railway line running from Heathrow Airport in the west of the city, through its center and out to the east of the city, costing 21.15 billion U.S. dollars and due to see trains running across the city by the end of 2018.

In addition, work began in 2014 on a significantly upgraded north to south Thameslink rail line, costing 9.29 billion U.S. dollars and due for completion in 2018.

However, the report says that the extra capacity created by these projects will be used up by the mid-2020s, at which point "crowding on key lines will reach crisis point."

By 2031, the number of passenger kilometers traveled in crowded conditions is predicted by London's transport authority TfL to rise by 50 percent from current levels.

The NIC said that a new north-east to south-west line would help relieve severe overcrowding across some of the busiest railway stations in the UK, and the most congested Underground lines and Overground commuter routes.

The NIC estimated that if investment in Crossrail 2 began now it could be completed by 2033. (1 pound = 1.43 U.S. dollars) Endit