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Transport Planning

The Importance of Crossrail

Why is the Crossrail 'Royals' connection so important for Newham, London and the Thames Gateway?
  • A Crossrail station will connect London and the rest of the UK directly to the Royal Docks and the Thames Gateway area - the country's fastest developing and most dynamic region. It will create a 'golden corridor' providing a huge boost to the economies on the route, providing thousands of jobs and homes for local people.

  • Crossrail provides a rapid, direct, high capacity link to the Royals from Central London and onward into the Thames Gateway. It will dramatically reduce congestion, replacing an estimated 5,300 car journeys or 3 or 4 lanes of traffic flowing into the Royal Docks alone.

  • A Crossrail station will open up the untapped potential of the Royal Docks - where over 300 acres of land are still to be developed - and deliver regeneration benefits to the communities throughout the region.

  • A Royals Crossrail link is essential to allow an extension east across the river to Woolwich to connect with the North Kent lines.

  • A Crossrail station will underpin the expansion of a major, new East London centre in Silvertown Dock and the development of a fine example of urban renaissance on truly sustainable principles.

  • A Crossrail station will enable the development of a significantly higher density and quality environment in the Royals, without compromising on quality. It will be capable of delivering in excess of 20,000 new jobs, more than 5,000 new homes and a huge expansion of commercial, business space and leisure destinations. Moreover, with Crossrail these could be delivered to an earlier timetable than some other regeneration programmes.

  • Crossrail will give added momentum to existing and new visitor attractions in the Royals such as the Olympic standard watersports facilities, Thames Barrier Park, further phases of ExCeL and the proposed National Aquarium, providing the capacity to handle millions of visitors.

  • Crossrail will place the Royals within 15 minutes of the West End, and within 20 minutes of most of Thames Gateway eastward, banishing at a stroke any sense that the Docks are remote. There will also be connection to Paddington and the Heathrow Express.

  • In the Royals, the combination of DLR, East London Transit, tube, plane, bus, cycle, water taxi and walking options together provide a fine supporting network for the Crossrail link, maximising the benefits of a rail scheme that might, on its own, be inflexible.

  • A world class transport system is needed to support a world class development district like the Royal Docks.



For all these reasons, Crossrail and the Royals route provide a winning combination for Thames Gateway, London as a World City and the UK as a whole.


More Information

For further information about Crossrail visit:

www.crossrail.co.uk


The Consultation

The second round of consultation finished on 28 October 2004, but if you would like to find out more about the project or give your views you can:

  • Contact the 24hr, 7 day a week project helpdesk on 0845 602 3813 or email:

helpdesk@crossrail.co.uk .


where all the consultation information is available to read and download.

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