CROSSRAIL 2 VENTILATION SHAFT (AGAIN) Post Reply

[ukrailblog]

TfL will publish a "response to consultation" in June. This will probably be a fairly boring document not of much interest. The next real event will be in late summer (October perhaps) when a new consultation is expected. It is likely that consultation will have TfL's "final" preferred route choice.

If the preferred route choice is Balham, then it may or may not imply a shaft on the common - ie. it is possible that TfL may find a way to route Crossrail via Balham without a shaft on the common (but there would be a shaft somewhere else).

If the preferred route choice is Tooting Broadway, then it is expected that the shaft will be on car parks near the prison, not the common.

If the preferred route is Earlsfield, then there would be no tunnelling anywhere near the common.

[Jen66]

I wonder how much influence our new mayor will have?

Khan was very vocal about his preference for Tooting over Balham

[ele_brujita]

Hi all, does anyone have any update on this topic? thanks

[ukrailblog]

Right now there are no real updates. Transport for London (TfL) have put a business case for Crossrail 2 to the Government, but it has not been confirmed/approved. The scheme was missing from the Conservative election manifesto and the Queens Speech, which may or may not mean anything. And the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling rather dislikes mayor Sadiq Khan, which may or may not mean anything.

There was a leak of a document recently in City AM, where the route was via Tooting not Balham and dropped Chelsea, but after querying, it was established that this was a route for the purpose of calculating numbers, not a final decided route.

As such, all everyone can do is wait. At some point, someone will have to make a decision!

[Nev123]

Just a thought on this that it would be odd for TfL to put a route to the government, even if it was only for costings, that wasn't their preferred route? Especially given on the Tooting vs Balham point I think it's accepted it's more expensive to go to Tooting, although nowhere near as bad as they were originally suggesting back in 2015 when the Balham route was consulted on. Doesn't stop the gov taking an alternative position I suppose though.

Although if the kings Road station has been dropped, which wouldn't be very surprising given it's very unpopular there and chopping it out saves a lot of money, then it makes even less sense to have Balham as the choice. The next stops would then be Clapham junction, Victoria and Tottenham Court Road - which entirely duplicates the overground and underground Balham already has.

You have to hope the personal animosity between grayling and Khan isn't the thing holding all this up! But stranger things have happened.