The Secretary of state for Transport, Alistair Darling, MP, has ruled out the Richmond/Kingston branch of the Crossrail route, linking East and West London.

While the news will bring relief to those whose properties were threatened with blight, it is not so good for the borough's London commuters.

In his written statement on Crossrail, Mr Darling stated: "It is clear that the case for a limb to Richmond/Kingston is relatively weakly developed."

Jenny Tonge, MP for Richmond Park, spoke to the Transport Secretary after his statement in the House of Commons. She reported: "Mr Darling confirmed to me that the Richmond/Kingston limb will definitely not go forward. Furthermore, he also assured me that the proposed route would not be safeguarded.

"This is tremendous news for the residents of Townshend Terrace whose properties have been blighted by the threat of a 'dive-under' at Manor Road Circus. They will be hugely relieved and I am delighted for them. Everybody who uses the District Line to get to work will be pleased too.

"However, it is not such good news for the residents of the Kingston end of my constituency for whom Crossrail would have been a boon. "

In the borough's other constituency, MP Vincent Cable has attacked the decision as feeble.

"The official (Montagu) report into the business case for Crossrail has recommended dropping the Richmond-Twickenham-Teddington-Kingston link from the main Crossrail project (the Benchmark Scheme), although it has the highest benefit to cost ratio of all parts of the system," he said. "The reasons given are partly financial - reducing Crossrail to a manageable scale - but 'public opposition' (in Richmond) is also cited as a factor."

Dr Cable continued: "The decision is a bad one. If Crossrail goes ahead we shall get the worst of all worlds. We won't get the trains which would have provided commuters in St Margarets, Teddington, Strawberry Hill and Hampton Wick with a new, fast, service to central London. But we shall have to pay higher council taxes to help finance the scheme in other parts of London.

"The feebleness of the Richmond Council leadership and the very small, vocal, protest group in Richmond have contributed significantly to the negative decision."

Richmond Council's Leader, Cllr Tony Arbour, called for an end to the "cloud of blight" over local homes and businesses that followed the government announcement of the go-ahead for the Crossrail scheme.

Cllr Arbour added that there was still uncertainty over the Richmond/Kingston link despite the minister's statement and the Montague report into scheme saying that the plans for the local branch are "still relatively underdeveloped" and that removal of the branch would improve the expected level of performance.

"Despite this it does not recommend that the plan is scrapped," he said. "Unless there is a confirmed statement, homes and businesses in this area will continue to be blighted."

Mr Darling, said in the Commons: "It is clear that the case for a limb to Richmond/Kingston is relatively weakly developed, and that an extension on the western side to Maidenhead might provide a better solution.

"This would be a key change, and would align directly with key review concerns about the scale and deliverability of the project.

"I am today inviting the Crossrail team to bring forward as soon as practicable confirmed route proposals for which powers should be sought in the hybrid bill."

Cllr Arbour reacted strongly to the statement. He said: "The Crossrail proposals have led to a cloud of blight over local homes and the Government's announcement has done nothing to end this uncertainty. It is essential that a definite statement is made, and urgently, to end this situation.

"I do not believe that this branch will now get the go ahead and the sooner this is confirmed the better. The money not spent on this should be diverted to upgrading the current rail network serving this area and exploring the possibility of extending the District Line to Kingston. There is an urgent need for new investment to improve local rail services."

Opposition spokesman, Cllr Martin Elengorn, summed it up and commented: "The Secretary of State's statement does not make it clear whether he has accepted the suggestion in the Montague Report that the Kingston/Richmond link is dropped. Dropping it would be a significant loss of transport opportunities to the borough. At the same time the question of blighting of properties in Richmond needs to be resolved."

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Tuesday, July 20, 2004

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