Crossrail’s prospects have been given a healthy boost following The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) endorsement of the ‘up to’ 24km long tunnelling project planned to link east and west London.
A representative of the CBI had previously said: “This is the single most important new piece of infrastructure for London. The benefits of an east-west rail link will spread well beyond the capital”. The level of support has now been increased to the extent that the CBI agrees that some of the costs should be paid for by businesses to help ensure the project gets ministerial approval. This is believed to be a major signal to ministers that the project would be a benefit to the economy as a whole.
In mid-January, reports circulated that large City firms were willing to pay a share in order to make the US$18.7bn project become a reality, after delays of nearly 20 years due to battles over funding. On the provision that there is a direct link from the City to Heathrow Airport, some companies have indicated that they accept in principle a levy on their business rates to help fund Crossrail. The Corporation of London would collect this in a similar manner to the extra funding raised for increased security in the district last December. No definitive figure has been released regarding the Crossrail levy or what its total contribution would be to the overall cost, but the UK paper, the Financial Times described “a strong consensus in the London business community of a contribution of at least £2bn [US$3.7bn]”.
Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, recently wrote: “The Crossrail project was shelved a decade ago because of concerns about whether its capacity was needed. Today, with the Tube and national rail services in London already full, there is no doubt that more capacity is needed.” He added that with the increase in capacity to central London, more jobs would be provided in the finance and business service sectors, which would mean more revenue for the government. He felt that the government should pay for roughly half the cost. Livingstone said that with the rest of the cost being raised from the business levy and fare revenues, much of the cost would be borne by Londoners.
