Crossrail tunnelling completion welcomed by Prime Minister

26 miles of tunnelling now finished on the £14.8Bn project.

The landmark completion today of tunnelling work on the Crossrail development has been welcomed by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Costing £14.8Bn, project will see the result in an east-west railway, transforming travel across London and the south east.

Mr Cameron was joined below ground by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and Transport Secretary Patrick McLaughlin at Farringdon and he hailed this “incredible” engineering and said it will be a big boost for businesses.

He said: “Crossrail is an incredible feat of engineering that will help to improve the lives of working people in London and beyond.

“The project is a vital part of our long-term plan to build a more resilient economy by helping businesses to grow, compete and create jobs right along the supply chain.”

Work started on the 26-mile tunnelling in 2012 and and since then, eight 1,000-tonne tunnelling machines have bored 42km of rail tunnels underneath London.

The tunnelling machine Victoria, named after Queen Victoria because she was the Monarch who witnessed the birth of modern railway, broke into the final destination of Farringdon Crossrail station last week, which then constructed the remaining section of tunnel as all Crossrail tunnels were linked up.

These tunnels weave between the existing underground lines at depths of approximately 42 metres.

Mr McLaughlin praised the “major milestone” on a project that will eventually provide travel from Reading to Heathrow, through to Shenfield and Abbey Wood.

“This is a major milestone in the most ambitious rail project this country has seen for decades,” he said.

“The Crossrail project showcases British engineering at its best, and I congratulate everyone involved in this impressive achievement.”

Jointly funded by the Department for Transport and the Transport for London, Crossrail is vital in the Government’s commitment to investing in the rail network.

The £14.8Bn Crossrail project is only part of the £38Bn that the Government will spend on railway improvements between 2014 and 2019.

It will see Farringdon become a major rail hub thanks to having direct connections to Thameslink services and the London Underground.

The project has been invaluable in creating jobs and by the time the project is completed, Crossrail and the supply chain will support 55,000 permanent jobs throughout the country.

Tunnels and stations will be fitted out by the 12,000 people currently working across the scheme.

The Mayor of London underlined the project’s importance in creating jobs, adding: “This is a landmark moment for London that puts us a gigantic step closer to the launch of an absolutely vital new railway, which will hugely improve our ability to speedily move people across our city.

“Crossrail has already created tens of thousands of jobs and helped boost the skills of many thousands of people not just in the capital, but all around our great nation. It is a wonderful example of nation’s talent for engineering.”

Scheduled to be completed in 2019, Crossrail will serve 40 stations and add to London’s rail network by a tenth.

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