Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Crossrail gets a step closer.

MPs are debating the Bill to enact Crossrail. This project, whilst not now going to be finished in time for the Olympics, could transform transport in London, especially here in the east where Stratford and Liverpool Street are bursting at the seams. Sadly it seems that some are opposing it. Bethnal Green & Bow MP George Galloway said the following:

The residents and small businesses of my constituency will be paying the greatest price for a service designed to connect Canary Wharf to Heathrow Airport.

It will be like a major bombing raid on the East End: Three major tunneling sites, a two-metre wide conveyor belt, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for six years, carrying spoil from the digging of these three tunnel sites, going inches from people's windows.
Whilst it's good to see that George Glasgow occasionally remembers he has a constituency and where it now is, once again he has missed the point. Crossrail will do a lot to revitalise the whole of East London, allowing easy connections from the East End to suburbs such as Forest Gate, Ilford and beyond into the wider area. This can only benefit Bethnal Green & Bow as more people are able to reach it, helping the businesses.

Much has been made about the shafts to remove soil in the construction of the tunnels. But at the end of the day these have to be somewhere. Living in Forest Gate I would have no problem whatsoever with having the shafts here (although from a technical point of view it's way too far east - as a consolation the building I live in is literally on top of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link which will open long before Crossrail and the vibrations can be felt throughout our flat). "Not In My Back Yard" is not a reason to relocate somewhere - and I have yet to hear any objector state where they think the shaft should be. As ever Galloway goes in for a cheap dig at the project, claiming it's hurting the poor to benefit the rich and showing just why class warfare and disRESPECT is such a joke in today's politics.

2013 can't come soon enough, although I'm sure that something will come along to delay Crossrail even further. Still one can but hope...

No comments:

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...