Implementing the London Plan - have your say

Link to document

The Mayor is currently consulting on the Implementation Plan for the London Plan (until 29 February.) 

"In spite of committed improvements set out in the TfL Business Plan (to 2014/15) and HLOS to 2014, crowding will remain on certain LU and NR lines and on certain radial corridors into London (Figures 1 and 2, below). Vehicle delay on the road network, particularly in Inner London and Outer London town centres, is also forecast to increase (Figure 3).

This has the potential to constrain growth and hinder delivery of the London Plan."

 "... 3.28 Table 6.1 of the London Plan gives an indicative list of transport schemes that are needed to deliver growth forecasts whilst meeting the Mayor’s wider environmental, safety, quality of life and accessibility objectives."

"... 3.29 The indicative list of schemes includes those that have funding committed in the TfL Business Plan and NR HLOS. These schemes include Crossrail and Thameslink upgrade (both due for completion 2018-19) and the LU line upgrades. These form the bulk of the Mayor's Transport Strategy (MTS) ‘reference case’ and will provide a substantial increase in rail capacity that is essential to accommodate short to medium term growth in London.

3.30 Additional investment over and above committed schemes will be required. Key schemes in the medium-longer term include delivering a new north east to south west rail link, also known as Crossrail 2, along an alignment similar to the safeguarded Chelsea-Hackney line route, four tracking of the Lee Valley mainline, further train capacity increases on key NR routes, development of key Strategic Interchanges, extensions to the Bakerloo and Northern lines, potential extensions to the DLR and Tramlink networks, enhanced river crossings in east London..."

"... 3.34 The 2010 Spending Review settlement for TfL and Network Rail allows for completion of essential short to medium term schemes such as Crossrail, Tube upgrades and Thameslink upgrade. This level of investment is approximately £4.8 billion per year to 2018. The proposed package of schemes beyond this will require continuing annual investment of around £ 3.5bn to £ 4.5bn in the period to 2031.

3.35 The next spending review is due in 2014. The settlement should allow for the confirmation of the TfL Business Plan to 2020 and the NR HLOS for Control Period 5 2014 to 2019. TfL is undertaking analysis of the priority schemes for delivery between 2015 to 2020 and is seeking involvement in discussions surrounding HLOS and train operating company franchise re-letting to ensure that outcomes support the MTS."

Evening Standard: "Boris pledges to fight for more concessions over high-speed rail"

Link to Evening Standard

"Boris Johnson has attacked the Government over the high-speed rail project, saying the plan as it stands is 'not right' for London.

"The Mayor expressed his concerns about the impact the £32 billion HS2 line will have on west London. Transport Secretary Justine Greening gave the go-ahead to the scheme last week, after pledging three miles of extra tunnelling in London to appease protesters."

Sir Terry Farrell and the Old Oak Common USP

"The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has commissioned Farrells to explore the potential for urban regeneration and growth around the proposed Crossrail and High Speed 2 rail interchange at Park Royal and Old Oak Common.

[Click top-right of this web site to view a video about the development from LBH&F.]

"Of the scale of Stratford or Canary Wharf, Farrells vision for over 500 hectares of West London (including Old Oak Common, the Park Royal Business Park, White City and Kensal) is focussed on the unparalleled level of accessibility of the potential ‘super hub’ interchange which would:

• link High Speed 2 connectivity from the north to the Great Western and West Coast Main Lines, Crossrail, West and North London Lines, Bakerloo and Central Underground lines, Heathrow Express, A40 and North Circular Road, and 
• properly link four of the nation’s major airports to the high-speed rail network for the first time. Heathrow would be just 11 minutes away, with three other airports (Luton, Stansted and City Airport) within 30 minutes travel time.

"Given this truly transformational level of accessibility, Farrells study concludes that there is the clear potential for a new place in London, with the ‘super hub’ interchange becoming a powerful economic driver for growth and regeneration.

"Working in conjunction with respected economists Colin Buchanan and CBRE, Farrells’ regeneration vision for 'Park Royal City' could generate an estimated 12,000 homes, 115,000 jobs, a new waterside park along the Grand Union Canal and a new rapid transit system, built on an unrivalled convergence of transport routes in west London."

Harrow/Brent Observer, and Brent & Kilburn Times (2)

Link to 'Brent and Kilburn Times':
"Residents in Kensal Triangle and Queen’s Park
dealt a bitter blow over HS2 green light"

Evening Standard: London HS2 mega-hub at Old Oak Common 'will be world-class'

Link to web site

"One of the capital's leading architects claimed today that a west London 'mega-hub' for high-speed rail will rival the world's greatest stations.

"Sir Terry Farrell said his proposed Old Oak Common interchange, near Wormwood Scrubs, will be able to compete with stations such as St Pancras and China's huge Beijing South in China - which he also designed.

"Hammersmith and Fulham council has recruited the architect to design the Park Royal City project, which will include the Old Oak interchange. Sir Terry's vision also features shops, flats overlooking a canal and a monorail to nearby business centres."

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Link to Evening Standard

"Euston calling with HS2"

"For sure, the disruption at Euston to traffic and trade caused by HS2 will be immense, but nothing close to the scale of the horrors 180 years ago.

"First to go as Euston spreads westward will be the grim Network Rail concrete boxes, the Ibis and Cottage hotels, and (sadly) the dear old Bree Louise pub.

"With ten new dedicated HS2 platforms for the new generation of 400m long, 1,100-seater, 225mph monster trains - some supposedly double-decker - piecemeal expansion is impossible, and instead Euston will be transformed into a 24-platform mega-station."

Evening Standard: "High speed train tunnel in London"

Link to Evening Standard

"Nearly three miles of extra tunnelling under London and thousands of new jobs were pledged to buy off protesters, as the High Speed Rail line to Birmingham finally got the go-ahead today.

Backers say 20,000 jobs will be created at the major new Old Oak Common interchange near Wormwood Scrubs, saying it would do for west London regeneration what the Olympics is doing in the east.

"Mark Loveday, Hammersmith & Fulham's cabinet member for strategy, said:

"HS2 is the fastest way to deliver much need new homes, jobs and opportunities in one of London's poorest areas. It will unleash the creation of a new business hub bigger than Canary Wharf, bringing thousands of affordable homes and jobs to London."

The Independent: "Full steam ahead for high-speed rail"

Link to The Independent

"A £32bn high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham that would cut through some of Britain's most prized countryside and infuriate Conservative MPs is set to be approved by the Transport Secretary.

"Justine Greening's decision comes after a study of the alternatives concluded they would fail to reduce overcrowding on trains and would condemn passengers to years of engineering work and delays."

Evening Standard: "High speed rail link backed by business leaders"

Link to Evening Standard

"Business leaders, union bosses and economists are urging the Government to press ahead with plans for a high-speed rail line between London and Birmingham.

"In letters to the Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and the Guardian, they said the proposed HS2 would boost growth and create jobs.

"The final decision on whether to go ahead with the controversial rail link has been postponed until this month."

BBC: "Crossrail project: Digging to start on London tunnels"

Link to BBC web site

"They look like a movie prop from 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' but the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) unveiled in Germany are the real thing. Each one weighs 1,000 tonnes and is longer than a football pitch. 

"In March, the first of eight of these giant machines will start burrowing under central London to carve out the tunnels for Crossrail, Europe's biggest civil engineering project."

March 2010: The Parsons Brinckerhoff Old Oak plan

Click above to enlarge
(then click top-right to return)

or link to the PDF report

WestTrans map and mission

"The six West London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow have worked together since 1997 on transport issues of common concern, originally under the name of the West London Transport Strategy (WLTS).

The WestTrans Partnership, led by Ealing Council, provides support on transport issues to West London Business and West London Alliance, and liaises closely with other key stakeholders such as Park Royal Partnership, the education & training and health & voluntary sector organisations.

Since its inception, through TfL's LIP programme, each year WestTrans has been successful in securing significant levels of funding to support the many and varied initiatives that it has implemented and continues to develop. This year WestTrans has secured £1.225m for the development of schemes, and has the potential to implement a further £670k of improvements subject to funding. Initiatives include:

• freight projects (coordinated through the West London Freight Quality Partnership); 
• Travel Planning initiatives; 
• strategy development; 
• station access schemes. 

The Partnership has and continues to face significant challenges in meeting transport demand, reliability and quality issues that are presented as a result of economic expansion and growth associated with development and leisure activities in the region. With an economy larger than that of Frankfurt, West London already has a very broad spectrum of businesses and employment and has benefited from the proximity to Heathrow as the primary 'International Gateway to Britain'.

BBC: "Transport spending 'skewed' towards London"

Link to BBC web site

"The government spends more money on transport projects for Londoners than on those for the rest of the country combined, a think tank says. 

"The Institute for Public Policy Research North says £2,700 is spent per person in London, compared with £5 per head in the north-east of England."

Lord Foster: The Future of London and Britain

"Lord Foster's second lecture as Humanitas Visiting Professor of Architecture at the University of Oxford, 28 November 2011, in the Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre, Saïd Business School, Oxford University. The lecture considers 'Heritage and Lessons'. Lord Foster said:

"Imagine how differently we might understand the modern world if we could travel back in time. We would discover that the cathedrals, the castles and the viaducts that form our 'heritage' were once new themselves and were seen as quite alien at the time; and that many of the landscapes we revere as 'natural' were in fact shaped subtly by man - some the outcome of the Industrial Revolution itself. We would also find that many of the challenges we face now have been met before.

Given the need to upgrade Britain's infrastructure for the 21st century, and in the absence of a time machine, we have to try to recapture the foresight and political courage of our 19th century forebears and to revive our traditions of architecture, engineering and landscape design. We have to draw lessons from our heritage, as well as inspiration from our Asian counterparts."

The OTHER Thames estuary airport plan (well, one of them)

Link to 'Thames Reach Airport Consortium'

"Bluebase initially developed Thames Reach Airport in 2002, following the SASIG report 'Does Aviation Matter?', with the conviction that the airport and associated infrastructure benefits will transform the Thames Gateway region into a well-serviced, world-class, 21st century metropolis.

"The project has developed with the support of leading UK consultants in aviation, construction, transportation, finance and cost planning."

Crossrail tunnel boring machines (TBM) ready to ship to London

Link to 'London Reconnections'

"The two TBMs currently being prepared are for the boring of the tunnels from Royal Oak Portal. The first of these now sits at Herrenknecht’s German plant, where it is undergoing final factory testing. It will shortly be dismantled and shipped to the UK, where it will be reassembled on the portal ramp at Westbourne Park.

"... Crossrail have confirmed that there have been very general, hypothetical discussions about the possibility of reconditioning and reusing the TBMs, should Crossrail 2 make it definitively off the drawing board."

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And if tunnelling floats your boat, here's another in East London:

Link above to 'Londonist' web site
and to a BBC video.

The Economist: "Quietly, a huge new port is being built close to the capital"

Link to The Economist

"SOME 25 miles east of London, on the site of a former oil refinery, the biggest infrastructure project most people have never heard of is under way.

"The port’s developer is DP World, the third-biggest ports company in the world, and owned by the emirate of Dubai. It is also building one of Europe’s largest logistics parks next to the docks.

"At the new port, containers can be transferred straight to warehouses, with the cargo leaving in smaller loads going directly to the south-east’s shops. London Gateway claims this will save millions of miles of lorry journeys, equivalent to taking 2,000 vehicles a day off Britain’s roads."

The Guardian: "London's new airport: should Beijing be a blueprint for the Isle of Grain?"

Link to The Guardian

"Architect Norman Foster says a Thames estuary hub is essential for Britain's economy; critics warn of a £50bn white elephant that could harm the environment."

"What is at stake, according to all sides of the argument, is nothing less than the economic and spiritual future of the nation. We are in danger of 'denying future generations to come', says architect Lord Foster. It is about the importance of our 'world-class natural environment', says the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It could be a 'white elephant' that would deal a near-fatal blow to our economy, says Sir Terry Farrell, another leading architect [including of Old Oak Common]. Also at stake is national identity: how much Britain should try to match growing countries such as China, and how much we should do our own thing." 

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"Ambitious Thames estuary plan to include international airport, railway and housing with new freight and energy infrastructure"

Link to The Guardian

"The Thames Hub, a £50bn project devised by architects Foster and Partners, planners and builders Halcrow and Volterra, a consultancy group of British economists, aims to revolutionise Britain's often creaking and largely inadequate national transport and energy infrastructure.

"From a proposed new Thames Hub, comprising an international airport, railway terminus, freight depot and port along with a new Thames Barrier sited all together in the Thames estuary, a new four-track high-speed orbital passenger and freight railway would run around the north of London before joining main lines to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Felixstowe, Cardiff and Southampton."

Evening Standard: "Streets ahead: Exhibition Road, London's culture highway"

Link to Evening Standard

"The latest addition to the South Kensington campus is a rather uptight experiment in improving the experience for these visitors. Architect Dixon Jones, best known to Londoners for the Royal Opera House refurbishment completed in 1999, has laid out new chequered paving on Exhibition Road in black and white granite, stretching unbroken, building-to-building, across what was once pavement and carriageway.

"It is at the same time a traffic-calming measure, a new, more civilised waiting area for tourist crowds, and one of the grandest (and possibly most expensive, at £25 million) pieces of public realm design in London's recent history, reaching 800 metres from South Kensington Tube station right up to Hyde Park."

The Guardian: "Chancellor believes massive investment in new aviation hub will boost UK economy"

Link to The Guardian

"George Osborne dropped the clearest hint yet that the government is warming to the notion of an airport on the Thames estuary, possibly built on this peninsula, as he pledged to 'explore all options for maintaining the UK's aviation hub status'. For residents of Grain village, it was confirmation that kickstarting the British economy poses a threat to their homes. ...

"The chancellor begs to differ. He is sold on the idea that infrastructure investment can boost the UK by providing economic links for business and unlocking cash from British pension funds. He also unveiled a memorandum of understanding with the National Association of Pension Funds and the Pension Protection Fund, to invest up to £20bn in projects such as power stations and high-speed rail lines, as well as the four-runway airport that would be built right over a quiet village in north Kent. A national infrastructure plan published this week mentioned 500 projects. All they need now is the money.

Daily Telegraph: "Extra £500m for high-speed rail tunnel to protect Chilterns "

Link to Daily Telegraph

"Ministers have found an extra £500million to pay for a new tunnel under the Chilterns, to pacify MPs who have been protesting against the high speed rail link between London and Birmingham."

"Officials in the Department for Transport have found the extra cash from other spending along the 100mile £32billion proposed route.

"The change to the plans will mean that a final decision on whether to give the green light to the HS2 project will now be delayed from this month to mid-January."