Crossrail project to deliver London’s Elizabeth line: From options to parliamentary bill

Abstract

The Crossrail programme to deliver the Elizabeth line east-west railway across London, UK, was authorised by the Crossrail Act 2008. It was the culmination of 6 years of planning and development work by an organisation called Cross London Rail Links (CLRL), which was created for the purpose as a joint venture between the Strategic Rail Authority (succeeded by the Department for Transport) and Transport for London. This paper explains the planning and development work, from the creation of CLRL in 2001 until agreement was given to deposit the Crossrail parliamentary bill in 2004.