TRAVEL DESK

The Queen gave her "royal assent" today for the £16 billion Crossrail Bill which will come into operation around 2017. The UK economy and primarily London will benefit to the tune of £20 billion when the project is completed in 2017.

Initial work will start on two tunnels connecting Paddington to Canary Wharf, with commuters from Maidenhead able to travel to Heathrow in the west tunnels.

New stations are being built as part of the Crossrail project at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel and Isle of Dogs with the east Shenfield and Abbey Wood also benfitting.

For many years commuters from the Meadway in Kent have experienced problems traveling to London, with the Crossrail this will be improved with super-speed links direct from Kent to London.

Mayor Johnson commented that "work can finally begin to deliver this fantastic project. Londoner's in the east will have far greater opportunity for jobs in the centre of London and we expect to see these areas flourish from private sector investment in housing and development".

One of the main winners in the approval of the Crossrail Bill will be Transport for London which will run the project.

Estimates of the advantages to the economy from the Crossrail project is an estimated £20 billion to the UK economy and a boost to employment seeing 14,000 more jobs created in the construction industry, which has suffered due to the economic slowdown in the last few months.

Passenger numbers are likely to increase by an extra 10 per cent when the project is completed by 2017.

photo credit: Thames Gateway.org