Twitter, to End POVERTY
1710 Hrs GMT
London
Thursday
27 May 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! That the London EVENING STANDARD remains an untenable contender for the description 'the London local newspaper' as the title continues to peddle the poverty-creating, disparity-spreading unaccountable uneconomic agenda of Big Biz corporations that are bent on looting the public under pretexts of big infrastructure projects and such other plausible-sounding claims and acts as the tout for vested interests who have not proven the basic economic social or environmental case for a single one of their clams disguised as ‘vital projects’..
That description has become almost synonymous with the Military Industrial Complex-promoted ‘London Crossrail’ scam. It is an uneconomic contrivance. It is also an irrationally conceived one at the dozens of the overdue repair and maintenance ['upgrades' as the word goes] needs of the Existing transport infrastructure in and around London. In many cases, such as the link between Paddington and Heathrow for instance, the OTT-hyped ‘fast’ Crossrail is clearly slow. We are talking about a project that is yet to be built. And once built, it will fail to deliver any of the many 'benefits' its peddlers have been promoting for it.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23839077-crossrail-stations-may-be-scrapped-in-pound-5bn-cuts-threat.do
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Crossrail could be slashed by £5 billion under drastic plans being considered by the Government.
In the worst-case scenario, Bond Street or Tottenham Court Road stations for the planned east-west rail link may be axed as part of a package of reforms, sources close to the scheme suggested.
Other options for lowering the £16.9 billion bill include cutting the number of train carriages and scrapping extensions to Maidenhead in the west and Abbey Wood in the east.
Mayor Boris Johnson, Transport for London boss Peter Hendy and City Hall chief of staff Sir Simon Milton were meeting Transport Secretary Philip Hammond for crunch talks this afternoon.
A senior TfL source said: “The Mayor is in there now making the case for continued investment in London's transport network, including Crossrail.
“TfL and London's business community are absolutely clear that Crossrail is vital. We understand that these are straitened economic times but London is not the same as the rest of the country. We've had a Conservative administration here saving money over the last two years.”
The project, scheduled for completion in 2016, aims to ease congestion and slash journey times in the capital, with a high-speed tunnel connecting Heathrow, central London, the City and Canary Wharf.
Building magazine today claimed that an internal Crossrail team, under instruction from ministers to save money on the scheme, is understood to be considering dropping either the planned Tottenham Court Road or Bond Street station.
The Department for Transport said the report was “pure speculation” and Mr Hammond told the Standard: “Our challenge is to deliver Crossrail as it was designed at the lowest possible cost.”
A source close to the process said: “The team is being asked to look at the whole scheme. If you took out both spurs and reduced the platforms and stations then they're looking at £4 billion-£5 billion of cuts.”
Mr Johnson last week said Crossrail had to mount a “Stalingrad defence” to guarantee funding.
Steven Norris, former Tory MP and Transport for London board member, said he believed axing a central station and the spurs were being looked at.
“The Government needs to understand the difference between the kind of spending that fills ad pages in the Society Guardian and genuine investment in the country.
“If you're going to cut Abbey Wood or Maidenhead you might as well shelve the whole lot. It only makes sense to dig the tunnel if you do the whole scheme. It's like planning to buy a new car without an engine.”
Shadow transport secretary Sadiq Khan said: “This is bad news for London's ability to bounce back from the recession.”
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Reader views (7)
I think there's a lot of scaremongering going on here, if they are going to axe some stations, I doubt that it would be TCR or Bond St.
If they need to cut it back then fine but they should build it so that it doesn't then become prohibitively expensive to extend/improve it later on.
The platforms should be built for future growth, you can't extend an underground platform easily once the service is running but you can add more carriages at a later date.
Unfortunately though a lot of the politicians involved lack common sense when it comes to public transport because they're totally out of touch with it.
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Oh gawd not again! History has shown us that cutting back public transport schemes always leads to problems in the long run!
It's almost like a repeat of the Victoria Line in the 60's, cheap tunnels, basic stations with small platforms and a shortened route... which have been it's downfall with today's huge passenger numbers.
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They agree a price to build the Crossrail, plus a little bit extra in case it goes over budget. And now we have to cut back on some of the stations to keep within the budget. Why do start to think that this will end up as a Crossrail link of single track, with stations at each end like Paddington and Liverpool Street, and a shuttle service that makes the Waterloo & City line look like an express service.
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The Government needs to either continue with it or scrap it!....Oh enough is enough! No more messing around with this project have a backbone forget half measures we know what required - do it or don’t!
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What a load on speculative nonsense. Has anyone spotted the bloody great holes at Tottenham Court Road or Canary Wharf? Cut TCR and the south eastern spur? You're having a laugh!
Crossrail will be built. It will be built in full beacause the funding is in place. Any fule can see that! What Philip Hammond, Boris etc have to make sure is that this fanatsic railway - which will revolutionise travel in London - is delivered on time and within budget.
Stop knowcking it and get on and build it. 20,000 jobs depend on it and London's economy will be nearly £50 billion better off when it finished.
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Agree; how about 6+ million Londoners all chip in £25 each and we get this built properly, then get small businesses to pay £150 each, SME's £500, and the banks and hedge funds a few million each. In fact, let's set up a JustGiving Page. The countless meetings to discuss 'cost efficiencies' will probably cost £25 million alone! People power; just build it ourselves.
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Please do it properly. A halfhearted job will cost more in the long run. For example, the DLR stations have been extended twice over to accommodate 2, then 4, and now to 6 carriages.
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