Finally, victory for Crossrail, given the go-ahead, with the first trains set to leave in about a decade (give or take a year or two). The campaign for Crossrail dates back to the late 80s but cost has always been an issue - an issue that never went away. Back in 1993, figures of £2bn scared the (then Tory) government off. By May 2001, the TfL was costing the scheme at £3.8bn. Today's announcement gave a figure of £16bn. Crossrail has its opponents, not least those for whom the disruption, especially in Central London, will be costly and devastating. Whether or not the Astoria, a striking but rather grimy music venue will survive or be demolished. That was 2004; in 2005 Westminster Council produced a draft planning brief for the Astoria site (large pdf), stating fairly unequivocally that the theatre, on the site of a former Crosse and Blackwell jam factory (and not a converted pickle factory - although it sounds better - is doomed. Ironically, the 20s building began life as a cinema, and was converted to a theatre in 1976, just as theatres all round the UK were going the other direction. More on the Astoria at the excellent Arthur Lloyd Music Hall and Theatre site.

The new Crossrail station extends deep beneath this part of Oxford Street, with platforms running below the heart of Soho - the square's layout just visible in the centre of this image. There are those who believe a bigger, more ambitious project should have been considered - Superlink, or even the long-mooted Chelsea-Hackney Line, also known as Crossrail 2 (map (pdf) - you can also see the outline of the Crossrail 2 station on the Tottenham Court Road station plans). Nonetheless, Crossrail is much needed. If nothing else, the 2025 Transport Network map (pdf) is an exciting prospect, especially for South London, although some of those station links are a bit disingenuous (it's also not nearly as satisfying as the tube for South London map, a fantasy hosted by Colourcountry). What it will do is create a new psychological world of genuine subterranean travel, a sense of being deep below the city that the tubes don't really convey, now that we're all so used to them.



Also far too long in the offing (check the name, for example, is Thameslink 2000, a north-south consolidation and expansion of existing track. Thameslink 2000 is very much a giveth and taketh away kind of scheme, weaving - bludgeoning - its way across existing arches, bridges and tunnels. Sadly, T2000 will have a major impact on Borough Market. The Save the Borough Market Area Campain illustrates how great swathes of the freshly-rejuvenated market will be swallowed up by the rather dreary piece of railway engineering that is designed to increase capacity out of London Bridge station. This is a messy part of London, where infrastructure and history collide unhappily. Throw in the proposed construction of the Shard at London Bridge (the capital's first 'vertical city'?), and the area will be echoing with jackhammers and bulldozers for the best part of a decade.

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Teachers 'fear evolution lessons' / Paris pictures from Hyperkit / Plus Six, interaction design and more / finally side-barred: Rossignol and diamond geezer (their Crossrail post, which notes that 'the Central, Bakerloo, Northern and Piccadilly lines were all constructed within a single decade, using private finance') / Content Aware Image Resizing: the 'graceful re-sizing' of images is not only alarming in a 'Commissar Vanishes' type of way, but is further indication of the modern world's utter disregard for proportion - something TV and cinema aspect ratios have also degraded. More about this another time.

Two links to digital urban: To Teleport or Not to Teleport: Travelling in Virtual Worlds, or how the teleport became ubiquitous, despite its ability to 'break the metaphor'. Also, SimCity Societies - What Kinds of Cities Would You Build? / the Downfall meme, in which a certain dictator's rage at the failure of Armeeabteilung Steiner is translated into frustration with 21st technology. Sounds glib, usually quite amusing: iSketch, Flight Simulator X, Xbox Live, car theft. And it goes on (via kottke).

Labels: Crossrail, London, transport

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