Following the news that the UK government finally intends to support a Bill for the east-west cross-London underground Crossrail project (T&TI, August 2004, p4) a late challenge has been issued with the launch in December last year of the rival US$24.7bn Superlink scheme that features 35km of tunnels under the capital.

Superlink was unveiled with the taunting slogan “A Crossrail that can happen – proposal for a new east-west railway serving London and the southeast region”. Backers of the scheme advocate dropping the hybrid Bill for the Crossrail scheme to instead examine and ultimately support their scheme.

The Superlink team argue that Crossrail is a metro scheme whereas theirs is a true regional scheme. For this reason, they say Crossrail is not fundable as it will not serve new markets and hence will have to be massively subsidised. The team say Superlink is fundable because it attracts new passengers to rail by serving new housing, supporting the development of the Thames gateway and expansion of Stansted airport. It also has the advantage of being deliverable in phases around a central section and claims that its fares revenue will be more sustainable, despite costing 25% more than Crossrail to build.

Chris Stokes, a director of Superlink Limited, told T&TI that detailed engineering designs were yet to be carried out, but that tunnel dimensions were likely to be of comparable size to those on the Crossrail scheme, 6m diameter, with a similar twin tunnel configuration and method of construction. Stokes described a 15km stretch of tunnels between Paddington and Canary Wharf as the “central core” to the scheme, again, much the same as Crossrail. Superlink then features an 11km tunnelled section from Canary Wharf to the northeast emerging from a portal in open country to the east of Newbury Park. A 1km connection in tunnel is required at the Barking to Tilbury loop, similarly a 2km tunnelled section in the west connects the Great Western line to the West Coast line in the Kensall Green area. Finally a 1km tunnel is planned to the west of Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport and a 5km tunnelled stretch under Staines is included for trains towards Woking.

Crossrail has recently dropped several branches from its proposal and Stokes commented that this was a “sign of an unhealthy scheme”. Superlink urges a review of all possible alternatives prior to the submission of the hybrid Bill, “our work indicates that there are attractive alternatives that have been ignored”.

Related Files
The proposed Superlink routes with a 15km tunnelled central core and an 11km spur in tunnel to the northeast