The government is set to give the £10bn London Crossrail link the go-ahead within the month, London Mayor Ken Livingstone predicted on Wednesday.
Livingstone said that the government would officially approve the east-west rail project, proposed by Cross London Rail Links, a joint venture between the mayor’s Transport for London and the Strategic Rail Authority.
Livingstone told Estates Gazette at MIPIM that the government would announce approval for “exactly the scheme I wanted”. “The route is going to link Heathrow to the Royal Docks and Thames Gateway, via central London,” he said.
The decision will mean that the east-west rail link will not follow a cheaper route through Charlton and Greenwich.
He added that the move would “silence critics who claim that the London Plan is undeliverable. The decision to back this project will completely transform the scene for developers in the Thames Gateway.”
But the Department for Transport has distanced itself from Livingstone’s comments. A spokesman for the DfT said: “This is not a done deal. We only received Cross London Rail Links’ business plan last week, and we have a responsibility to make the right decision on a scheme of this size.”
However, Livingstone said that a hybrid bill implementing the project, which is the core of his London Plan, would be approved “by the time we come to Cannes for the next MIPIM”.
Livingstone added that the government’s support for Crossrail showed it would back a bid for London to host the 2012 Olympics. “It’s no surprise that the route the government is looking at links all the major Olympic sites,” he said.
