[x-posted to uk.transport.london]

On May 27, 3:23*pm, kev wrote:

Slasher Hammond to strike again?

From
http://www.building.co.uk/crossrail-...000374.article

Central London station and two spurs face the axe as project team
works to cut £5bn from budget

The government is considering making £4-5bn of cuts to the £16.9bn
Crossrail scheme, as the scale of capital spending cuts starts to
emerge.
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.

All the options under consideration include:

Dropping one of the planned central London stations
Dropping or reducing some spurs outside central London, including the
link to Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood in the east, and Maidenhead in the
west
Reducing the trains from 12 to 10 carriages, thereby minimising the
size of stations
Wide-ranging value engineering for the rest of the project.
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 £4-5bn of cuts.”

London mayor Boris Johnson last week said Crossrail had to mount a
“Stalingrad defence” to guarantee funding for the original scheme.
Stephen 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.”

A Crossrail spokesperson said the organisation “constantly makes
efforts towards value management and value engineering to achieve
maximum value for money”, but declined to comment on specific
cutbacks.

It is not known what impact a decision to drop Tottenham Court Road
station might have on the £250m upgrade of the tube station, currently
being undertaken by Vinci and Bam Nuttall.

If cuts that deep are really on the cards, then as Steven Norris says,
they might as well not bother.

On May 27, 7:40*am, Mizter T wrote:
[x-posted to misc.transport.urban-transit]
[x-posted to uk.transport.london]

On May 27, 3:23*pm, kev wrote:





Slasher Hammond to strike again?

From
http://www.building.co.uk/crossrail-...ed-by-a-third/...

Central London station and two spurs face the axe as project team
works to cut £5bn from budget

The government is considering making £4-5bn of cuts to the £16.9bn
Crossrail scheme, as the scale of capital spending cuts starts to
emerge.
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.

All the options under consideration include:

Dropping one of the planned central London stations
Dropping or reducing some spurs outside central London, including the
link to Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood in the east, and Maidenhead in the
west
Reducing the trains from 12 to 10 carriages, thereby minimising the
size of stations
Wide-ranging value engineering for the rest of the project.
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 £4-5bn of cuts.”

London mayor Boris Johnson last week said Crossrail had to mount a
“Stalingrad defence” to guarantee funding for the original scheme.
Stephen 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.”

A Crossrail spokesperson said the organisation “constantly makes
efforts towards value management and value engineering to achieve
maximum value for money”, but declined to comment on specific
cutbacks.

It is not known what impact a decision to drop Tottenham Court Road
station might have on the £250m upgrade of the tube station, currently
being undertaken by Vinci and Bam Nuttall.

If cuts that deep are really on the cards, then as Steven Norris says,
they might as well not bother.

True, but that would be tragic. IMHO, this is one infrastructure
project that should go ahead.

I hope they are almost working out how much more it would cost to
correc these omissions at a later point. Extending platforms on an
existing line or adding a station will cause seemingly endless WCML
style disruptions and overruns. Is this worth it? Or is it just part
of a game to reduce the project to the point that it doesn't make
sense and then either abandon it, or worse still, build it anyway out
of spite just to have a token project that nobody actually uses but
that makes the government look as if it's actually doing something
useful with its money.

correc these omissions at a later point. Extending platforms on an
existing line or adding a station will cause seemingly endless WCML
style disruptions and overruns. Is this worth it?

No way will they worry about that! The idea will be to cut as much as
possible while still allowing Boris to claim that the project has been
saved thanks to his lobbying, and thus allow him to be reelected.
Doesn't matter if problems emerge in the 2020s, or even on completion:
Cameron can simply point out to Boris that by that stage, "I'll be
gone, you'll be gone".

No way will they worry about that! The idea will be to cut as much as
possible while still allowing Boris to claim that the project has been
saved thanks to his lobbying, and thus allow him to be reelected.
Doesn't matter if problems emerge in the 2020s, or even on completion:
Cameron can simply point out to Boris that by that stage, "I'll be
gone, you'll be gone".

Ideas are luxuries the politicians can no longer afford, the 1.4
trillion pound deficit in the public finances is now the only idea
left on the table.

The six billion in spending cuts announced this week, that’s already
got us all scratching our heads, is only the start.

Just think on this, over the next two to three years, and probably
this year as well, it’s going to have to be nearer twenty to thirty
billion a year in public sector spending cuts.

Over in Ireland, they’ve already reached the point of closure
proposals. Lets’ just hope that here in the UK we get to hang on to
what we’ve got.

If the railways come through this completely unscathed we should
consider that to be a bonus.

Over in Ireland, they’ve already reached the point of closure
proposals. Lets’ just hope that here in the UK we get to hang on to
what we’ve got.

As a matter of interest what lines in Ireland, apart from Rosslare Strand
to Waterford are proposed for closure?

On May 27, 5:02*pm, allantracy wrote:

Over in Ireland, they’ve already reached the point of closure
proposals.


If you are refering to Waterford Rossalare or whatever it is thats
closing soon, its 1 or 2 hardly used trains through nowhere.

This is an isolated case in an area that does have better road access
(I've driven through it many times) and has zero to do with UK
budgetary policy.

--
Nick

E27002 wrote on 27 May 2010 16:19:42 ...
On May 27, 7:40 am, Mizter wrote:
[x-posted to misc.transport.urban-transit]
[x-posted to uk.transport.london]

On May 27, 3:23 pm, wrote:

Slasher Hammond to strike again?

From
http://www.building.co.uk/crossrail-...ed-by-a-third/...

Central London station and two spurs face the axe as project team
works to cut £5bn from budget
[snip]

If cuts that deep are really on the cards, then as Steven Norris says,
they might as well not bother.

True, but that would be tragic. IMHO, this is one infrastructure
project that should go ahead.

As well as running the "£5bn Crossrail cuts" story today, the London
Evening Standard also carries a report of an interview with Philip
Hammond, the new Transport Secretary, which includes this:

"London's long-delayed, £16 billion, east-west link railway will be
finished but every mile of track and every station is being scrutinised
for savings. “It's under way and we are committed to it,� said Mr
Hammond. “But it has to be tested and re-tested at every stage to ensure
it is delivering value for money.� Canary Wharf station had been
redesigned to reduce costs and the project should look for similar
opportunities. “I want to be sure we have asked if there is anything
that was designed in the days when we thought money grew on trees that
we can look at again in the post-Labour world. We owe this to
hard-working families.�

That sounds rather less drastic than had been feared, but we'll have to
wait and see, I guess.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

In message
,
Mizter T writes

It is not known what impact a decision to drop Tottenham Court Road
station might have on the £250m upgrade of the tube station, currently
being undertaken by Vinci and Bam Nuttall.

It's very unlikely to result in significant savings, if any, given that
a lot of the work is already well under way, a huge amount has already
been spent on compulsory purchase of expensive buildings for both the
Eastern and Western Ticket Halls, and that signed contracts (no doubt
with costly withdrawal clauses) are in place.

Similarly, I can't really see that shortening platforms will create any
savings - quite the opposite, in fact, given that in many cases ticket
halls are at both extreme ends of the planned long platforms. Either
longer underground passages would be needed, or the entire sites of some
ticket halls would have to be changed, leaving abandoned works and
creating more rounds of compulsory purchases with associated massive
costs.

Axing two of the branches is a more achievable, albeit undesirable, way
of cutting the cost.
--
Paul Terry

On Thu, 27 May 2010 09:02:34 -0700 (PDT), allantracy
wrote:

Ideas are luxuries the politicians can no longer afford, the 1.4
trillion pound deficit in the public finances is now the only idea
left on the table.

The six billion in spending cuts announced this week, that=92s already
got us all scratching our heads, is only the start.

Just think on this, over the next two to three years, and probably
this year as well, it=92s going to have to be nearer twenty to thirty
billion a year in public sector spending cuts.


Wrong. The figure is £60 billion a year for the next three years, ten
times more than this year's £6.2 billion fleabite.

And it wouldn't have mattered which party or parties formed the
government, because all three of the main parties had projected cuts
in the deficit of between £52 billion and £62 billion per year for the
next three years 2011/12. 2012/13 and 2013/14.