Crossrail Bill 2005 The Crossrail Bill required to construct and operate the railway was introduced in February 2005 and like all legislation was fully considered by the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Bill contained a description of the works to be done and where they are to be carried out, and identified the land needed temporarily or permanently.

History of Crossrail

As far back as the late nineteenth century, schemes were being explored to enable the railways to penetrate right into and through central London.

In 1836 Robert Stephenson (co-inventor with his father George of the Rocket and engineer of the London & Birmingham Railway) had prepared plans to extend his newly completed main line beyond the Euston terminus in tunnel under Gower Street and Covent Garden to the Savoy Wharf on the Thames.
However, later due to the problems of running steam traction below ground these schemes never reached fruition. With the invention of electric traction, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Underground grew, and so did London. The Railway Companies continued to deliver passengers to the termini at the edges of the business districts and the passengers continued their journeys on the Underground.

By the late 1980s it was clear that options to run more trains over existing tracks were reaching the limits of capacity. The Government then commissioned a study to investigate how this problem could be solved.

The Central London Rail Study of 1989 proposed three projects, East-West Crossrail (now 'Crossrail'), a new Underground line to link Wimbledon and Hackney (now Crossrail Line 2) and an extension of the Jubilee line.

In 1991, a Bill was submitted to Parliament for the East-West scheme. Unfortunately, in 1994 the bill was rejected as the then recession temporarily depressed passenger journeys into and through the capital.

In 2000, with both the Underground and National Rail networks now suffering record levels of congestion and a resulting decline in service reliability, the Government asked the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) to study the requirements for extra passenger capacity to and through London.

The 'London East West Study', prepared in response to that request, sets out the issues such as network capacity, congestion, growth and regeneration. It identifies a programme consisting of complementary and incremental projects that will create a railway network appropriate to London's status as a World City.

The Study recommended that both the East-West and Wimbledon-Hackney routes be resurrected and schemes developed to construct them.

To achieve this aim, a 50/50 joint venture company, Cross London Rail Links, was formed in 2001 responsible for defining the routes, as well as developing and promoting these two new railway routes.

Now named Crossrail Limited, the company is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Transport for London. The company is changing from a planning and promotional organisation to the Delivery Agent for this exciting new railway. The Crossrail project itself continues to be the joint responsibility of the Secretary of State for Transport and the London Mayor as joint Sponsors.

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