CrossRail - the Emperor's new clothes

Written by Lynne Featherstone and published in New Civil Engineer on Fri 13th Jun 2003

It's the Emperor's new clothes!

Thou shalt not link CrossRail with the Olympics - in case anyone realises that the government is scared and can't make up its mind to go ahead.

The whole charade is completely ridiculous. How can they even consider hosting the Olympics without CrossRail. Virtually every city that hosts the Olympics – grasps with both hands the opportunity to build their transport network. Barcelona put in a whole metro. But not us…

It's not as if London doesn't need CrossRail. It is the key plank of the Mayor of London's development plan for the capital for the next 15-20 years (which may explain the government's reluctance). And Ken has said there is no plan B.

We are hardly going to look like real players in the bidding war if we admit, before we even start, that we are incapable of successfully putting in a major transport infrastructure for something as big as the Olympics.

Lord McIntosh of Haringey [Lords 28 April] refused to be rushed. They 'can hardly' make a decision until July, at the earliest.

Never mind that Lord Marshall and Sir Peter Davies and six other senior business leaders wrote to the Prime Minister urging Alistair Darling to make a decision before Easter. Never mind that John Prescott at the ODPM plans 293,500 new jobs in the Thames Gateway and 95,000 new households by 2016. Never mind that the IOC has a deadline of 15th July to decide on London's Olympic bid and that Lord McIntosh himself admits that 'CrossRail could be of significant benefit' to a major stadium in east London if it can be completed in time.

We must not 'rush into something like that'.

The Olympics and CrossRail are inextricably bound together for better or worse. For goodness sake – get on with it!