Examination of Witnesses (Questions 220
- 235)
220. CHAIRMAN: Mr Thornely-Taylor, that
was extremely interesting. Thank you very much. I think it is
not inconceivable that we may see you again with some of the Petitioners,
and we look forward to that. For the moment, thank you very much
indeed.
221. MR ELVIN: My Lord, I have one message
that I was passed for my Lord, Lord Snape, in respect of his question;
just to let him know that the RER does not have rubber tyres.
222. LORD SNAPE: They did the last time
I was there, Mr Elvin! Perhaps it is a while since I was there.
Of course; I am sorry, it was the Metro, anyway, not the RER.
223. CHAIRMAN: Is this collection of
slides going to be made available to the Petitioners?
224. MR ELVIN: Yes. Copies can be made
for anyone who requires them. Indeed, it may be possible even
to put them on the website, if the Committee thinks that is appropriate.
As I said, we supplied a draft of those slides to Sharpe Pritchard,
who are Agents for the two lead authorities remaining, dealing
with noise issues.
225. CHAIRMAN: I think you may have some
more questions on some of these points that we have been talking
about.
226. MR ELVIN: If the events in the other
place are anything to go by, I suspect you will be hearing a little
more on this subject—but perhaps less than in the other
place.
227. CHAIRMAN: Unless there is anything
else, Mr Elvin, I think that brings us to the end of this afternoon,
and we will start again with another teach-in at 10 o'clock tomorrow
morning, but with a different expert.
228. LORD BROOKE OF ALVERTHORPE: One
final question, my Lord Chairman. Which is the nearest equivalent
that we could look at to what Crossrail will be like?
(Mr Thornely-Taylor) My Lord, the nearest equivalent from
the point of view of groundborne noise in this country is the
Jubilee Line Extension. It is a smaller diameter tunnel, the trains
are smaller, but it is the first major example of the great leap
forward in track design for underground railways. Sadly, it is
very hard to find anywhere where you can hear it. I was given
the job of finding somewhere to do measurements for the original
Crossrail project and I ended up in the second basement of Christies
in King Street as being the only place I could find where you
could hear it at all. It would be, I think, impossible to arrange
a site visit because I do not know of anywhere that there is anything
to hear. The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is also an underground railway;
it, too, was designed to 40 LAmax,S. I have done some investigations
to see how it has turned out, but all the indications are that
it, too, is very low in level. I think it would be hard—the
difficulty is that the actual noise levels from modern underground
railways are very low and it is extremely difficult to find anywhere
to listen to them.
229. LORD SNAPE: I suspect, Mr Thornely-Taylor,
my distinguished colleague has asked the wrong question. What
he means: is there any comparison between Crossrail and the RER
in Paris?
(Mr Thornely-Taylor) There are major engineering differences
between the tunnels and the stations, but I will leave it to others
to expand on that.
230. LORD SNAPE: I feared as much, my
Lord Chairman.
231. BARONESS FOOKES: Is there likely
to be any pile driving going on?
(Mr Thornely-Taylor) The general answer is no. Most pile
insertion will be by auguring into the ground or by using diaphragm
walls instead of piles. There may be some insertion of sheet piles
by vibratory means and it is not impossible that local circumstances
might require more aggressive forms of insertion, but in general
the answer is no—of the kind I think you have in mind.
232. BARONESS FOOKES: I ask because during
the Jubilee Line Extension I was a Deputy Speaker in the Commons
and sitting in the Speaker's Chair one night it felt like a series
of minor earthquakes.
(Mr Thornely-Taylor) That is something which I hope will
not occur on Crossrail, my Lady.
233. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. So
10 o'clock tomorrow morning and we will deal with compensation
to start with.
234. MR ELVIN: Yes. Mr Mould will be
leading on compensation and Ms Lieven will be leading on settlement
tomorrow.
235. CHAIRMAN: Mr Thornely-Taylor, we
will look forward to seeing you again some time in the future.
(Mr Thornely-Taylor) I will look forward to it very much,
my Lord.
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