"London could halve the cost of major new transport projects by adopting a European model of planning and financing, a City Hall report has said. Infrastructure projects in London are often more expensive than in other European cities, with the Jubilee line extension costing 10 times as much per mile compared to a similar project in Madrid. The report, entitled Mind the Funding Gap, called on the mayor and TfL to restart work on Crossrail 2, which was paused after the government stopped funding during the Covid-19 pandemic."
"The committee heard that Madrid's "low-cost and speedy approach" to its metro extension in the 1990s kept costs down through standardised, simplified station design. Neil Garratt, who chairs the committee, said: "Delivering new transport infrastructure has wide-reaching benefits for London, Londoners, and the wider country, yet challenges remain with funding and spiralling development costs. "London could deliver major infrastructure projects between 20 and 50% cheaper if we adopted some of the planning and financing processes in neighbouring countries.""
London's infrastructure projects are substantially more expensive than counterparts in other European cities, with some schemes costing many times more per mile. Standardised, simplified station design and a low-cost, speedy construction approach helped keep Madrid's metro extension costs down in the 1990s. Crossrail 2 remains paused after government funding stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic; the scheme would link Surrey and Hertfordshire rail networks via a new central London tunnel. A clear timeline for transport developments to 2040 and a strategy to attract private investment are presented as measures to lower delivery costs and reduce planning-stage deadlock.
Read at www.bbc.com
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