Examination of Witnesses (Questions 8720
- 8739)
8720. Thameslink goes from Kings Lynn to Brighton,
a huge area, lots of stations, and it is basically the same scheme
as Crossrail but in a north-south direction. They say we can do
a big network, we can have 48 trains an hour running regionally,
why can you not do it in the east-west direction. As my drawing
shows the Promoter's scheme here from Maidenhead to Shenfield
has got 35 stations, 48 trains in the rush hour going through
the central tunnel. They cover a total of 1,308 miles, an average
of 27 miles per train. Thameslink 2000 is going to have 168 stations,
the same 48 trains an hour, they cover 4,226 miles, an average
of 88 miles per train. More travellers, longer distances, and
that makes a greater contribution to the cost of the central tunnels,
much better fares.
8721. The catchment area of the Promoter's scheme
is very much limited to the London suburbs which are accepted
as mature developments rather than rapidly expanding like many
of the towns: Milton Keynes, Colchester, Chelmsford, Reading,
Aylesbury. More than half the trains, 28 out of 48, in Crossrail
never get west of Paddington and this is a serious waste of expensive
tunnelling. The Crossrail Promoter has had to withdraw trains
to Kingston and Ebbsfleet at the last minute. In the business
case 20,000 of the 36,000 passengers approaching Paddington from
the west would have come from the Kingston branch so this reduction
is a huge change in Crossrail at the last minute.
8722. My table 1 on page six of my report shows
the rush hour services into Liverpool Street from Shenfield as
they work at the moment.[109]
There is a train every two minutes, stopping, semi-fast, fast
trains. Six slow trains go from Shenfield and a further six go
into London from Gidea Park which is about seven miles nearer
London than Shenfield. There is not one train at the moment that
leaves Shenfield and stops at all stations to Liverpool Street.
The trains from Shenfield miss out the last few stations and those
stations are served by the trains from Gidea Park. Stopping trains
take about 41 minutes compared with 27 minutes for the semi-fast
trains from Shenfield into London.
8723. The Crossrail Promoter intends to impose
a 12 slow, all stations, trains per hour service into London from
Shenfield annexing the slow lines entirely. With the extra stations
that they have to stop at as part of the system these are going
to take about 20 minutes longer than the existing semi-fast trains
into Liverpool Street. There is absolutely no incentive for people
to change to Crossrail at Shenfield. Everyone will continue to
Liverpool Street passing three or four Crossrail trains on the
way and make a change there.
8724. At present around 60 per cent of the passengers
arriving at Liverpool Street in the rush hour go onward on foot
to their destinations rather than interchanging on to the Underground.
This is a big number. I think it is the highest percentage of
any station in London. People get off the train and go on foot
to work in the City obviously. As the Crossrail Promoter says
it will only be used by local users so we can expect 60 per cent
of the people going into London on Crossrail from the Shenfield
direction will get off at Liverpool Street and walk to wherever
they work. Obviously some transfer to Crossrail will take place
at Liverpool Street but generally, given that London Underground
serves a far wider choice of destinations than Crossrail, a lot
of people still go on to London Underground.
8725. Giving priority to certain trains can
disrupt everyone else. The only sensible way for busy lines to
be operated is for Network Rail to signal the trains and operate
to the benefit of all on a fair timetable. We in Milton Keynes
and Northampton have suffered from this where the West Coast Mainline
upgrade has given Virgin control of the fast lines and hard luck
to everyone who does not want to go to Manchester or Scotland.
The people in Milton Keynes and Northampton have really suffered
from dividing types of trains on to separate tracks.
8726. Really the Promoter's Crossrail scheme
will attract the minimum of potential users over minimal distances
and will create difficulties in operations. It does seem strange
or ridiculous that after Crossrail is built someone going from
Southend over here to Reading would still go into Liverpool Street,
naturally enough, it is faster, and then get the train from Paddington
to go to Reading. He would only possibly use Crossrail for the
four miles from Liverpool Street to Paddington.
8727. So relief to Central London termini and
the Underground will be very limited. The business case for Crossrail
stresses the need for provision of efficient and reliable travel
across a wide geographical area but Crossrail covers a narrow
area and will create problems for the train users rather than
efficient and reliable travel.
8728. Private sector consortia have tabled two
alternative schemes: Superlink, a more expensive scheme, and London
Regional Metro. The Crossrail Promoter accepts that London Regional
Metro is not significantly different from its scheme as the central
tunnel sections are largely the same. The opportunity is there
to develop regional rather than local services, straight away,
and indeed the Promoter's initial investigations showed that Regional
Crossrail generated more income and more transfer to public transport.
8729. My drawing shows Regional Crossrail.[110]
Basically the network would include everything the Promoter includes
except it will go out to Reading, Aylesbury, Northampton and Milton
Keynes on one side and on the other side Cambridge, Stansted,
Ipswich, Clacton, Southend. It is basically the same scheme but
making much more effective use of the rail network on each side.
8730. A typical regional Crossrail scheme would
have 111 stations, 48 trains, 3,452 miles and about 72 miles per
train. Looking at the diagram shows how Thameslink 2000 and Regional
Crossrail provide a good match. It would be a similar order of
cost to the Promoter's scheme. It would use the same central tunnel
sections but make far more effective use of the high quality rail
lines into the capital.
8731. Regional Crossrail would be fully integrated
into the national rail network, to the advantage of everyone.
With more users travelling longer distances there would be far
greater contributions to all the project costs and maximum relief
to stations such as Paddington, Euston, Marylebone and Liverpool
Street and the London Underground network. Passengers would have
everything to gain by using Crossrail for all or a significant
part of their journey, maximising revenue and maximising relief
to the other parts of the rail and Underground network.
8732. The regions would have excellent access
to all parts of London and good connections between their regional
centres. Good connection between their regional centres. Places
such as Northampton, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury, Reading, Cambridge,
Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, Ashford, Dartford, Brighton and
Guildford are all linked, as are the London airports. This is
exactly what the regional assemblies want, and London is just
as well served as with the Promoter's scheme.
8733. The Government priority development areas
and regeneration areas, such as Thames Gateway, Milton Keynes
South Midlands, Peterborough-Cambridge-Stansted-M11 corridor and
Ashford, are all in the Regional Crossrail—Thameslink 2000.
Thames Gateway is better served by Regional Crossrail and the
Lee Valley, a priority area for London, would also be served.
8734. Looking at the Promoter's response, the
Promoter has sent me a book with their response.[111]
Firstly they say by limiting the number of branches and operating
on segregated tracks an efficient and reliable service would be
provided. Spreading the service over numerous routes would increase
the risk of importing delays.
8735. Now obviously it has to be accepted that
this would be true at times but there are issues which work the
other way. In my view the Promoter has over-emphasised the importance
of this single issue in order to keep Crossrail as a London only
project.
8736. Thameslink 2000 will operate regionally
and the rail industry is happily promoting this scheme. The Government
is investing billions in rail maintenance, signalling and new
trains to deal with the very problems the Promoter is concerned
about. By 2015 the railway should be reliable and punctual.
8737. With Crossrail operating on a segregated
basis on the mainlines into London then Crossrail and the remaining
service will suffer as the current flexibility will be lost. Trains
would be barred from switching between lines so any problems would
be magnified. In addition, we have all been on Underground stations
where a failed train has brought the whole network to paralysis
and this will happen with the Promoter's scheme whereas a wider
network and flexible operations would minimise the effect of the
problems and a stream of trains would still go through the central
tunnels.
8738. Secondly, the Promoter says that by creating
numerous opportunities for connection and interchange with other
services and other modes Crossrail will provide improved transport
over a wide area of the South East.
8739. I have shown that the Promoter's Crossrail
will attract minimal usage and is not attractive to many of those
travelling from outside London itself. Regional Crossrail will
be infinitely better, much better interchange and relief to central
termini and congested Underground lines.
109 Committee Ref: A100, Trains into London from Shenfield
0700-0800 weekdays (LINEWD-2705-006). Back
110
Committee Ref: A100, Proposed Route Plan of Alternative Regional
Crossrail (SCN20060516-008). Back
111
Crossrail Ref: P82, Promoter's Response to the Petition of James
Middleton, p7 (LINEWD-2702-007). Back
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