CROSS CITY CONNECT PROPOSES HS1-HS2 LINK

CROSS CITY Connect, a special purpose vehicle, is promoting an alternative link into London for HS2 which would connect Old Oak Common in west London to HS1 at Rainham in east London. The tunnel under the capital would include an underground station on the South Bank.

The venture says the plan would dispense with the need for the proposed terminus at Euston and the associated rail connection, largely in tunnel, from Old Oak Common. It highlights the transport benefits and significant commercial opportunity which would arise should the proposal come to fruition.

A key benefit is reduced cost and disruption from removing the need to build the high-speed line into Euston and undertake major works at the terminus, which is estimated to yield a saving of around £7 billion. Passenger dispersal issues at Euston would also be mitigated, the venture claims, with the possibility of reconsidering the route for Crossrail 2 to potentially improve the business case. Cross City Connect would also help ensure HS2 acts as ‘a connectivity spine for the whole country rather than just a rail project linking London with the Midlands and the North’ the concept’s promoters say.

The SPV has been founded by its chair Mark Bostock, an independent consultant (and one of the chief architects of the switch of route for HS1 from a southerly to an easterly approach to London), alongside OTB Engineering Ltd, Salamanca Group LLP and Buro Happold Ltd, advised by international law firm CMS.