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London Crossrail ‘will benefit whole of the UK’ claims Boris Johnson – and Crossrail 2 on its way

17 May 2022 3 minute read
Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a Crossrail train. Picture by Ian West / PA Wire.

Boris Johnson has claimed that London’s new Crossrail rail service will benefit “the whole of the country” – and that Crossrail 2 is already being planned.

The railway runs from Reading in the west to Shenfield in the east, with an initial budget of £14.8bn climbing to over £18.8bn.

Despite the creaking infrastructure in the rest of the UK, the Prime Minister said that he had “no embarrassment as a former Mayor of London” in seeing more investment go into the capital.

Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre said last year that Wales had been “robbed” of more than £500m in rail infrastructure investment in less than a decade.

Their report found that under a fully-devolved system, Wales could have received an extra £514m investment in its rail infrastructure between 2011-12 and 2019-20.

But Boris Johnson told ITV that Crossrail would be a “transformative investment not just for London but for the whole country”.

“I’ve got absolutely no embarrassment as a former Mayor of London about supporting great projects in London, and we’ve got to do,” he said.

“We’ve completed Crossrail but frankly, but there is more that we should be doing. We should look at projects such as the Bakerloo Line Extension. But I think the real thing for us now is to think about Crossrail 2, and with the old Hackney Chelsea line, Chelsea, that is that is going to be transformative.

“Again, all of the problems of commuters coming into Waterloo, getting up to North London, you can fix that with another Crossrail.”

‘Neglect’

In February Wales’ First Minister slammed the UK Government’s “neglect” of rail infrastructure in Wales as “pathetic”.

Mark Drakeford said that Wales was not treated fairly by the UK Government and added that calling HS2 an England and Wales project was “absolutely nonsensical”.

He was responding to a question in the Senedd by Labour MS Carolyn Thomas who asked what Wales’ could do to claim its £5bn share of investment it would be entitled to if HS2 was classified as an England-only project.

“Wales is treated anything but fairly when it comes to rail investment by the UK Government,” Mark Drakeford responded, adding that “Wales loses out on billions of pounds’ worth of investment.

“It is nonsensical—absolutely nonsensical—to claim that, because there is a new service from London to Birmingham, somehow that means Wales has had its fair share of that investment.

“Scotland, where comparability is conceded, will have £10 billion to invest in rail infrastructure in Scotland, every penny of which is being denied here to Wales.

“And all of that comes on top of a decade of neglect of investment in the infrastructure here in Wales.”


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hdavies15
hdavies15
1 year ago

Boris can’t help himself. His verbal incontinence has no cure short of a bullet between the eyes. The capacity for exaggeration and downright lies is legendary and is well matched with his verbosity.

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
1 year ago

When is Welsh Labour going to learn, the UK gov just doesn’t give a toss about Cymru. If our rail network is ever to improve – we are going to have to do it ourselves.

Paul
Paul
1 year ago

Presumably the North are against the South Wales Metro?

That benefits all of Wales, even if the hardware is in the South.

Last edited 1 year ago by Paul
hdavies15
hdavies15
1 year ago
Reply to  Paul

How much of the proposed S.W.M is likely ever to be operational ? The bits nearest to Cardiff I suspect. The name of the game long term is to herd people closer to the hub and those on the outer limits will be left to fend for themselves.

Gareth
Gareth
1 year ago

In other words, look what I am spending on London, now suck it up, just like you have for the last 600 years, and be happy you are allowed to be part of the glorious UK, and know your place.

Arwyn
Arwyn
1 year ago

This is the economic dogma the Tories follow. They might try to make it sound respectable by calling it agglomeration. What it is in fact, is robbing Peter to pay Paul. In this way London and its commuter belt gets richer. The Tories will claim London bails out Wales’ deficit and Mark Drakeford will call that solidarity. Yes, the very economic model the Tories use as a cash cow for their own ends and a stick with which to beat “seperatists” is the very economic model the Prif Weinidog decries one moment and lauds the next. It isn’t good enough.… Read more »

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
1 year ago

Here we go again. With London’s crossrail cost £19 billion+ and crossrail 2 a purported £41.3 billion, that Conservative clown Boris Johnson stating how both projects will be “beneficial” to the whole of the UK is laughable. l Who can recall similar said about the 2012 Olympics in which £19 billion was spent transforming London with the same bull**** said how it too would leave a legacy and be beneficial to Wales. Yes, there was a legacy alright. We are still bloody paying for it all these years later! It’s not funny anymore. To see hundreds of billions spent on… Read more »

Charles Coombes
Charles Coombes
1 year ago

I would like at least 10 benefits of Crossrail. They would ALL be for the South of England. I would also like to know how Wales could use even the 4 billion over run money to improve its rail way service across Wales And NOT just in the Valleys and urban areas of the South.

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