A few might be interested in listening to the 10 minute segment on the
subject of Crossrail that featured on today's (i.e. friday's) World at
One programme on Radio 4.

The commentator Simon Jenkins, a former Oxford Prof of Management John
Kay and the Leader of the London Borough of Barnet Cllr Mike Freer
were some of the featured sceptics, countered by a robust defence of
the project by Mayor Ken in an interview at the end of the segment.
Livingstone also makes clear that the project will be managed by the
Mayor's office & TfL, and states that there are five or six big
construction firms around the world he believes are capable of
delivering the project, though he seems to have one in particular in
mind.

The segment of the programme concerning Crossrail is from approx 5
minutes to 16 minutes and can be heard for the next 7 days by clicking
this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/genre....shtml?radio4/
wato_fri#


FWIW (i.e. not much) a few disjointed thoughts of my own. I'm not
entirely convinced that Crossrail is really the what London needs most
in public transport terms, but it looks like it's finally going to
happen and I'm certain it'll be a great success once it finally opens
for business.

Those who haven't followed trends in London over the past 10 years
might not quite be aware of just how significant Canary Wharf is as an
employment centre today - and Crossrail will indeed serve the 'Wharf'.
Ken's claim that Crossrail will serve 'the Thames Gateway' via Custom
House station can't really be substantiated that well at the moment -
however the situation would be somewhat different if there was an
extended DLR that reached eastwards (of which there are proposals).

Lastly it is reassuring that the project will be managed by the Mayor
and TfL rather than by the DfT and 'Whitehall' - I have a lot more
faith in the former's ability to pull it off successfully than the
latter's!