---quote---
Mr Johnson's admission that the full plans for Crossrail are under
threat raises the prospect of the Maidenhead or Abbey Wood spurs being
abandoned. However, he pledged to fight “very, very hard” to protect
the rail link in its entirety.

“Whether we are successful in that is yet to be established. But it's
absolutely essential that we mount a Stalingrad defence of the London
transport settlement,” he said.


I'm not normally a Boris fan. But he's impressing me with his fighting
talk on Crossrail. A "Stalingrad defence"! He also talked about "going
thermonuclear"! During the election he was also badgering Cameron,
trying to get him to commit. I hope this isn't merely talk, and he is
doing the hard work lobbying behind the scenes.

If he manages to save Crossrail in such an unfavourable financial
environment, in my opinion he will deserve nearly as much credit for
the project as Ken.

Although Ken is the one of the greatest individuals in the history of
public transport in London IMHO, ironically it may turn out to have
been for the best that he lost the 2008 election. He wouldn't have
been anywhere near as useful for lobbying Cameron.