Crossrail 2 to ease future congestion

The 1974 London Rail Study proposed a Tube beginning at Wimbledon in southwest London, either taking over or sharing tracks with District Line Wimbledon-Edgware trains as far as Parsons Green. It would then follow a new underground tunnelled alignment calling at existing stations at Fulham Broadway, Chelsea, Sloane Square and Victoria, at a new station at Millbank, and then Waterloo before crossing the River Thames once more to take  in the Aldwych branch of the Piccadilly Line. (At that point, the latter was running merely as a shuttle to and from Holborn mainly for the benefit of commuters and theatre-goers, and it later closed completely in 1994.)

After Holborn, the line would continue to Farringdon, Old Street, Shoreditch Church and then Dalston Junction (then still a part of the British Rail network), before continuing to Hackney Central, Hackney Downs, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Leytonstone. Hereafter, the route would take over or share the Central Line’s Hainault loop branch.

Over the years, many more amendments were proposed. The Central London Rail Study of 1989 suggested deletion of the Millbank station plan and a somewhat different route through central London, including new underground platforms at Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road, King’s Cross St Pancras and Angel. Essex Road and Homerton were also added, with the route then following the Central Line before terminating at Epping. It was this route that would later be safeguarded in 1991, meaning that no other development could be built preventing its construction.

Throughout the 1990s, the proposals developed further. Under an ‘Express Metro’ plan, main line trains would be accommodated as opposed to smaller Tube trains, and would call at fewer stations.

While Wimbledon would remain the southwestern terminus, three routes were proposed from East Putney onwards on the District Line to Victoria: to Putney Bridge, Parsons Green and Chelsea or King’s Road (as the original safeguarded plan had dicated); to Wandsworth Town and Clapham Junction, and then through Chelsea Harbour and King’s Road; or via Battersea.

Piccadilly Circus was omitted, as was Angel. But Dalston Kingsland was added, with the line then going to Hackney Central, from where it would split. One branch would take in Leytonstone and again take over the Central Line to Epping; another would take the North London Line to Woolwich, which would later become a part of the Docklands Light Railway.

Fast forward to the 2000s, and yet another report - the London East West Rail Study. The Chelsea-Hackney line (as these proposals had become known by then) was being considered both as a standalone project and in conjunction with the Crossrail project (taking a route from Wimbledon to Tottenham Court Road and then to Liverpool Street). Piccadilly Circus remained missing from the plans.

A Chelsea-Hackney Regional Metro would diverge north of King’s Cross (one via Dalston and then the Central Line, and another via Finsbury Park and the disused Northern Heights formation, using the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line). An Express Metro option used the East Coast Main Line for serving points north.

Following the 2007 go-ahead for Crossrail 1, the plans for Chelsea-Hackney were re-examined yet again. Just as the proposals for High Speed 2 were being developed in 2009 by then Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis, TfL was carrying out its own review into the need for a new rail line. It concluded that there was a greater need for a new northeast-southwest rail line, given the current and planned growth across London.

With HS2 currently expected to arrive at Euston in 2026, a boost to the Tube network is anticipated to cater for the increased passenger numbers that HS2 is expected to attract.

That has been a game-changer for Crossrail 2, with TfL ensuring that the plans have developed broadly to the form they take today - championed by the likes of Adonis, London Mayor Boris Johnson and other mayoral hopefuls, and (importantly) with the blessing of Network Rail.

The most detailed case yet was made in the final report from the London First Crossrail 2 Task Force in February 2013.

“The task force’s findings are striking,” writes Baroness Jo Valentine in her foreword to that report.

“Even with the major improvement and expansion programmes that are already planned or under way, overcrowding on the majority of London’s rail and Tube network will increase beyond acceptable levels by the late 2020s. On some parts of the network, demand will be such that the system will be unable to meet demand for large parts of the travelling day. Resilience - to enable the network as a whole to cope with unexpected disruption - will be negligible.”

Given that the proposals for Crossrail 2 have a remarkably long and complicated history (not a single mile of new tunnel has been excavated since the idea was first mooted), it was a relief for supporters when TfL set up a public consultation in May 2013, building on the original concept and proposing two potential options:

A ‘metro’ route starting at Wimbledon would take in central London through to Angel and Alexandra Palace (entirely underground).

A ‘regional’ route would take in Twickenham, Surbiton and Epsom, as well as the Wimbledon-central London-Angel section-Alexandra Palace. An Angel-Cheshunt route was also consulted on, surfacing at Tottenham Hale before continuing on Network Rail tracks.

When the results of the consultation were published in November 2013, it was clear that there was broad approval for the proposal - 96% of respondents to some degree supported the plans, in particular the regional route (84%, against 73% for the less ambitious metro plan). Only Kensington and Chelsea showed any degree of opposition, with 20% of respondents in that borough expressing any disapproval.