This morning local MP Mark Field visited the new Crossrail tunnels and station being built in the constituency. Crossrail is Europe’s largest railway and infrastructure construction project and will bring much-needed new capacity to London’s public transport network when it is completed in 2018.

At Tottenham Court Road station, Crossrail is working alongside TfL on a £1bn transformation of the existing tube station, the biggest transport investment in the West End for decades.

Built over 100 years ago as two separate tube stations, Tottenham Court Road was not designed to cope with the almost 150,000 passenger journeys that are now made through the station every day.  With the expected rise in passenger numbers interchanging between London Underground services and Crossrail in 2018, the existing station is being upgraded to meet the expected rise in demand for this key central London station for years to come.

Alongside the upgrade of the existing tube station, Crossrail is building a new station the length of three football pitches four storeys underground.  A new street level ticket hall will be constructed at Dean Street, with the station box continuing five levels below ground at a depth of around 25m, providing access to the new Crossrail platforms.

Mark was shown the new access tunnel being dug out between the two huge new underground railway tunnels and discussed the project’s progress at length with Crossrail Chairman, Terry Morgan. Crossrail is vitally important to London’s economy and is currently employing thousands of Londoners as well as training up new apprentices.

If constituents experience any problems with the project while works are underway, please do get in touch with us as the project managers made clear their keenness to minimise the impact of construction on the local community insofar as it is possible.

Mark Field Local News