The Guardian: "On track for Britian? Italy's Ferrari of the railways gets off to a flying start"

Link to web site

"Could this sleek, red railway equivalent of a Ferrari one day cut a blurry dash through the Chilterns? If Britain has struggled to sell the idea of high-speed rail to a sceptical public, the government might like to turn to Italy for inspiration.

"From Saturday, the traveller from Rome to Naples can cover the 225km (140 miles) in little over an hour, paying as little as €20 (£16.33) for the pleasure."

Network Rail: "The Case for New Lines" (2009)

"The Forgotten Great Western and Great Central Mainline from London" (through Old Oak Common)

Wednesday 2 May: The Rail Engineer: "Making London’s railways fit for the challenge of major growth"

Link to The Rail Engineer

"... The next decade will see upgrading of radial routes, and the creation of major new cross-London capacity in the form of Crossrail and Thameslink, as well as the continued development of orbital routes and interchanges."

The Londonist: "A Modest Proposal To Improve Crossrail"

Link to The Londonist
(to satisfy the Daily Mail Science Correspondent)

The Londonist: "Will Someone Please Explain What’s Wrong With The Hammersmith Flyover?"

Link to The Londonist

"Ever since work began on the Cromwell Road Extension in the 1940s, a complicated set of junctions at Hammersmith Broadway prevented the scheme from linking up with the Great Western Road. In 1962 the Hammersmith Flyover opened to much acclaim, providing this missing link. It is this structure whose current state of ill-health is bringing West London to a grinding halt. The source of its woes are the corroding steel reinforcement cables, but they are most certainly not to blame.

"The Hammersmith Flyover is an ingenious design. It was necessary to provide an elevated carriageway 61 feet wide in a space that was only 28 feet wide, using a construction site suspended above a busy arterial traffic route that was to remain operational."

F&H Chronicle: Overnight closure as work to re-open A4 Flyover reaches 'critical' point'"

Link to Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle

"WORK to re-open the stricken A4 Flyover has reached a 'critical' point with the stretch set to be closed overnight to allow key strengthening work to be completed.

"... Work to strengthen the five weakest spans of the 16 span structure will be completed in June 2012, well ahead of the London 2012 Games."

Evening Standard: "High-speed rail link 'would struggle to break even'"

Link to Evening Standard

"Transport Secretary Justine Greening was today urged to order an independent review of the high speed rail link to the North after new figures suggested the scheme would struggle to break even.

"... A Department for Transport spokesman said the benefit-cost ratio was only one part of the decision-making process, arguing that the benefits 'reach well beyond transport economics'."

West London trolley-buses (and Thomas the Tank Engine)

Evening Standard: "Canary Wharf Crossrail station reaches milestone"

Link to Evening Standard

"Construction of the £15 billion Crossrail project's underground platform at Canary Wharf station has been finished five months early."

LONDON MAYOR 2012: Transport Manifestos

Link to PDF file

"My plan for transport in London is simple"

1. Cut fares and keep them down.

2. Make it easier for everyone to get around while cutting pollution, with better public transport, less congestion, and safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists.

3. Plan now for the transport system that London will need tomorrow.

Link to PDF file

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"My 9 point plan for a Greater London"

... ...

8. Reducing Tube delays 30% by 2015. Building Crossrail and orbital rail to link our suburbs. Extending the Bike Hire scheme.

9. Securing a better deal for London from No 10.

IanVisits: Photos from inside the Crossrail Station at Canary Wharf

Link to IanVisits web site

"It may not look it from the outside, but an important part of Crossrail’s Canary Wharf station has already been completed – and five months ahead of schedule.

"In fact it doesn’t really look completed when you have a look at it – but what the builders have done is finish the structural construction in order to hand it over to Crossrail engineers to start fitting it out. Over the next few months they will be laying tracks on the base of the station so that when the tunnel boring machines arrive next year, they can drive through the station and out the other end."

The Guardian: "Hammersmith and Fulham council estates facing demolition have become political battleground"

Link to The Guardian

"Two estates in the west London borough are lined up for the wrecking ball: the larger West Kensington and the smaller Gibbs Green next door. Built in the 1960s and 70s and containing 760 houses and flats, they are earmarked by the council for sale to the property firm Capco for £100m. Their demolition would clear much of the way for the redevelopment of 31 hectares of some of the most expensive real estate in Britain. The Earl's Court project would also see the levelling of the two exhibition centres that share the area's name.

"From the rubble would rise what Hammersmith and Fulham and its adjoining Tory borough Kensington and Chelsea term a 'new urban quarter', based on Sir Terry Farrell's masterplan for 'four villages and high street' – a high-rise, high-density, high-value neighbourhood quite different from the one it would replace."

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Evening Standard:

"London's population to rise by 14%"

"Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the overall population of the capital will rise by 14.2 per cent to more than nine million by 2020 — more than one million more than currently live here.

"Net migration accounts for only 2.5 per cent of the predicted increase, because, although large numbers of migrants arrive in the capital each year, many then move."

"HS2-NW is a campaign based in the North West which aims to promote the benefits of HS2"

Link to 'HS2 Northwest' web site

"Despite the first phase of HS2 only being built to the West Midlands, the North West will benefit massively from the construction of this new line. A connection from HS2 to the West Coast Main Line (WCML) close to Lichfield will allow for 'classic compatible' trains to operate on the conventional network North of the West Midlands."

Sunday Telegraph: "Radical planning powers are to be unveiled by ministers"

Link to Sunday Telegraph

"The planning framework will be published on Tuesday by ministers who want a new age of 'pro-growth' planning.

"High-Speed-Two chief engineer Prof McNaughton, who holds posts at Imperial College, London, and Nottingham University, raised the prospect of a major expansion to Birmingham Airport, which could be rebranded 'London Birmingham' because the travel time to the capital using the high-speed link would be shorter than the time taken to travel from London to Stansted.

"Prof McNaughton also said the HS2 would create a 'second Docklands' in a densely populated area of west London."

Uxbridge Gazette: "Tunnel options tabled at feisty HS2 forum"

Link to web site

"EXTENDING the proposed High Speed Two (HS2) tunnel under Ickenham 'could be looked at', according to officials from the firm which will build the line.

"In the first of HS2 Ltd's 'community forum' meetings with stakeholders in Ruislip, a route expert also admitted that a spur link to Heathrow 'might never happen' and that they 'didn't know where it would go'.

"Residents who would live above the tunnel were reassured they would not be able to feel vibrations as trains passed underneath their properties at up to 200mph, but might suffer two days of disruption as the tunnel was bored."

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Link to

"How Ruislip could turn HS2 to its advantage"

"The Stop HS2 bandwagon has continued to roll on in the wake of the scheme's government approval in January, but one Ruislip resident is prepared to consider the possibility that the high-speed route won't be stopped. Reporter James Cracknell watched his presentation to find out more."

Crossrail announces shortlist for main tunnel fit-out

"Andy Mitchell, Crossrail Programme Director said: 

“Tunnel fit-out will be one of the largest contracts to be let by Crossrail, and will create further employment opportunities, as well as providing a welcome boost to regional suppliers. We received significant interest from the rail and construction industry, with a large number of responses received.

The contract will be awarded in early 2013, providing the chosen contractor with sufficient time to undertake detailed design and planning before fit-out work commences in 2014.”

"Construction of Crossrail’s tunnels will get underway next month when the first tunnel boring machine is launched from Royal Oak. By late 2014, the construction of over 21km of twin-bore tunnel, stretching across the capital via central London and Docklands, will have been completed.

"As construction concludes, work will get underway to fit-out the tunnels with the necessary track and overhead power equipment to enable Crossrail trains to operate from 2018. This will include the installation of over 40km of track, overhead electric conductor rails to power the trains as well as ventilation and drainage systems.

"The new Crossrail tunnels will also require over 50 ventilation fans, 40km of walkways, 60 drainage pumps, 30km of fire mains as well as lighting throughout the entire length.

"This major contract will contribute towards the creation of further employment opportunities on Crossrail. Thousands of people will be employed in building Crossrail at the height of construction in 2013-15. Further jobs will be supported through the supply chain in London and in regionally-based manufacturers and suppliers.

"The fit-out works will be carried out within the entire tunnelled section of the Crossrail route between Royal Oak, Pudding Mill Lane and Plumstead Portals. It is envisaged that the selected contractor will start fit-out simultaneously from both Royal Oak and Plumstead portals."

Prime Minister David Cameron's speech on national infrastructure

"Our railways are crowded and expensive.

"Compared to the French, Dutch and Swiss railways, our fares are 30% higher, our running costs are 40% higher,

and our public subsidy is double theirs."

Link to Number 10 and video

"...The truth is that no government in Britain in living memory has set out a sufficiently comprehensive and ambitious vision of this country’s infrastructure needs.  And by a comprehensive and ambitious vision, I do not just mean a list of projects; I mean an overall system, an integrated set of networks that collectively deliver the economic and social goods.

"As well as this failure of vision, there has also been a failure of financing.  Everybody knows that infrastructure is expensive; one academic assessment puts the bill at £500 billion just to meet our current commitments.  And we cannot hide from the fact that new infrastructure has to be paid for either by those who use it, by government, or by a combination of the two."

Shepherd's Bush Blog: "Imperial West development: controversy and tall buildings"

Looking north-west, towards Old Oak
Link to 'Shephard's Bush Blog'

"Residents on both sides of the Hammersmith &Fulham /Kensington & Chelsea divide continue to be up in arms about the proposed Imperial West development, as the prospect of yet more tall buildings - a 30 storey monster on the next door Dairy Crest site for example - loom into view alongside the 10 storey ones already in place on the White City Opportunity Area. The plans have been dubbed as giving rise to the "Twin Towers" of the Bush.

Central to the plans for Imperial Colleges’ new campus on the site, which it purchased for £28 million, is housing facilities for 600 postgraduate students. Plans have already been approved for this and construction work is underway, with the College predicting they’ll be ready for occupation in ‘Autumn 2012’.

Express & Star: "HS2 phase two announced soon"

Link to Express & Star

"Detailed plans for the second phase of the controversial HS2 rail project will be made public within weeks, a Staffordshire Conservative MP has revealed.

"Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant has said plans for the second phase of the line travelling to Manchester would be published in the spring."