Why did London have to wait so long for a main-line railway beneath its streets? For a few years in the mid-nineteenth century, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's broad-gauge Great Western trains ran from Reading to Faringdon. Now, after many false starts, his vision is being realised as the Elizabeth Line prepares to carry passengers from Reading to the City once again, and beyond to Essex and Kent, using engineering that would have earned the admiration of the greatest Victorian engineers. London historian Stephen Halliday presents an engaging discussion of Crossrail's fascinating origins and the heroic engineering that made it all possible.

The story of an engineering marvel of the twenty-first century, from Britain's bestselling railway writer. Crossrail, first conceived just after the Second World War in the era of Attlee and Churchill, has cost more than £15bn and is expected to serve 200 million passengers annually. From Reading and Heathrow in the west, the Elizabeth line will extend to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, including 42 kilometres of new tunnels dug under central London. The author sets out the complex and highly political reasons for Crossrail's lengthy gestation, tracing the troubled progress of the concept from the rejection of the first Crossrail bill in the 1990s through the tortuous parliamentary processes that led to the passing of the Crossrail Act of 2008. He also recounts in detail the construction of this astonishing new railway, describing how immense tunnel-boring machines cut through a subterranean world of rock and mud with unparalleled accuracy that ensured none of the buildings overhead were affected. A shrewdly incisive observer of postwar transport policy, Wolmar pays due credit to the remarkable achievement of Crossrail, while analysing in clear-eyed fashion the many setbacks it encountered en route to completion. With a new afterword to mark the opening of Crossrail in 2022.

Newly opened by Queen Elizabeth II herself, discover the history and secret stories of the people who've lived above London's newest trainline. Crossrail, or the 'Elizabeth' line, is just the latest way of traversing the very old east-west route through the former countryside, into the capital, and out again. Throughout The Tunnel Through Time, renowned historian Gillian Tindall uncovers the lives of those who walked this ancient path. These people spoke the names of ancient farms, manors and slums that now belong to our squares and tube stations. Visiting Stepney, Liverpool Street, Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street, Tindall traces the course of many of these historical journeys across time as well as space. 'Enchanting' Sunday Telegraph 'Deftly weaves together archaeology, social history, politics, myth, religion and philosophy' The Times 'Fully of lively vignettes' Spectator

The Department for Transport received a further 52 representations between 10 June 2005 and 8 August 2007. This is publication lists the significant issues raised in the consultation exercise followed by the detailed responses.

Crossrail Bill was published as HCB 5, session 2007-08 (ISBN 978021579202)

A highly readable but challenging perspective on the established conventions of transport policy planning and economic appraisal ... a fascinating tour d'horizon of topical transport issues.? David Quarmby CBE chairman of the Independent Transport Commission?David Metz again challenges conventional thinking in transport through a fundamental reinterpretation of the limits of travel time and human mobility arguing that there should be maximum limits set for mobility if we are to avoid unacceptable environmental damage.? David Banister professor of transport studies Oxford University 'The firs.

In January 2009, the Government established High Speed Two Ltd (HS2 Ltd) to consider the options for a new high speed rail network in Britain, starting with a costed and deliverable proposal for a new line from London to Birmingham. HS2 Ltd's report concludes that there is a strong business case for a new London to Birmingham line, and sets out detailed recommendations for the design of its route, together with a range of options for how it might be extended to serve other conurbations. The Government has evaluated these proposals in respect of their costs and benefits for enhancing capacity and connectivity in a sustainable way, which is its key strategic objective for inter-city transport. It has also considered other realistic options for meeting the UK's inter-urban capacity needs over the next 30 years, including carrying out a detailed analysis of the potential costs and benefits of major improvements to existing rail and road networks. This Command Paper sets out both the Government's response to HS2 Ltd's recommendations and its assessment of the case for an initial core British high speed rail network. The Government proposes to begin formal public consultation in the autumn, to cover three key issues: HS2 Ltd's detailed recommendations for a high speed line from London to the West Midlands; the strategic case for high speed rail in the UK; the Government's proposed strategy for an initial core high speed rail network.

The main report is available (ISBN 9780215038579) and additional written evidence is contained in Volume 3, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/transcom

Megaprojects for Megacities is a collection of 14 international case studies of transportation, urban development, and environmental megaprojects completed during the last ten years in North America, Asia and Europe. It goes beyond the previous megaproject literature to look at how and why each project was conceived, planned, engineered, financed, and delivered, and at how particular planning and delivery practices shaped outcomes.

First published in 1999, this book contains case studies of rail transport policy-making in two UK Passenger Transport Authority areas and reviews the factors informing such policy-making. It contributes to transport geography by explaining why the actual policies implemented in Starthclyde and Merseyside were pursued, and to the continuing development of the political science theory of ‘the urban policy regime’ by analysing the differences in policy development attributable to the different ‘city-regional’ (Strathclyde) and ‘public choice’ (Merseyside) geographical structures of local governance. The book demonstrates that these differences in the spatial organisation of local institutions play a powerful role in determining the operation of the local ‘regime’ of policy-makers, the form of final policy outputs, and the level of public accountability achieved.