Dave Arquati wrote:

Something which had escaped my attention and which not much fuss seems
to have been made of - the Crossrail Select Committee made a statement
on its preliminary findings having considered petitions related to the
Crossrail Bill, and the main issue is that they are requiring CLRL to
add a station at Woolwich to the Bill.

That sounds like a really good idea IMO, thanks for spotting that Dave.
I dare say there hasn't been any chat about it here as utl doesn't have
any contributors from down Woolwich way.


From http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/060725.pdf :

The major issue arising from Petitions in the Greenwich area was the
need for a station at Woolwich. We will refer to this issue in detail
in our report. At this time we wish to state that we have carefully
examined all the evidence put before us and we are clearly convinced
of the essential need for a Crossrail station in Woolwich, an area
which includes some of the poorest wards in the United Kingdom.

We noted that the Promoter's calculations of cost of this station
showed that it would provide exceptional value for money and we
require the Promoters to bring forward the necessary additional
provision to add this to the Bill. We would also ask the Promoters to
work with the local Council to ensure that the Crossrail station is
fully integrated into the local transport infrastructure.

All of which sounds like a strong and well reasoned argument for
including a Crossrail station in Woolwich. As stated it does have some
very poor areas, and whilst transport connections don't solve such
issues, they can help a lot.


A point to note is that a Woolwich Crossrail station would not be
underneath Woolwich Arsenal station; the tunnel places it under the
Royal Arsenal site to the north, making integration more complicated
(probably easy enough for Greenwich Waterfront Transit, but not so for
the DLR).

The committee's comments on ensuring "the Crossrail station is fully
integrated into the local transport infrastructure" would initially
appear to suggest some kind of full interchange with south eastern NR
lines and DLR - as you point out Dave this isn't realilistically
achievable. However integration with the "local transport
infrastructure" can mean a good modern bus interchange (ala North
Greenwich or Canada Water) with a good selection of feeder bus routes,
along with the proposed Waterfront Transit. And just because it
wouldn't be a super-interchange doesn't mean it wouldn't be worthwhile.

I hope this will be seriously considered by the Crossrail team and
Crossrail's stakeholders. The proposal strengthens the regeneration
angle of Crossrail, and whilst it'd increase the cost I'd say it could
also boost the political support that Crossrail requires to get the
green light.