Crossrail Breakthrough: Tunnelling marathon completes

The Prime Minister and Mayor of London Boris Johnson celebrated the completion of Crossrail’s tunnels by going 40 metres below the capital to thank the men and women who are constructing the new £14.8 billion east-west railway.
Crossrail tunnelling began in the summer of 2012 and ended at Farringdon with the break through of tunnelling machine Victoria. Eight 1,000 tonne tunnelling machines have bored 26 miles or 42 km of new 6.2m diameter rail tunnels under London.
Construction is also advancing on the ten new Crossrail stations and on works above ground west of Paddington and east of Stratford. Over 10,000 people are currently working on Crossrail, including over 450 apprentices.
With the arrival of Crossrail in 2018, Farringdon will become one of the UK’s busiest rail hubs with direct connections to London Underground and upgraded and expanded Thameslink services. This brand new interchange will transform the way passengers travel through London and the South East, providing more capacity and direct connections to three of London’s five airports and international rail services at St Pancras. Passengers will also benefit from quicker connections and will be able to travel to Tottenham Court Road in three minutes, Heathrow in just over 30 minutes and Canary Wharf in nine minutes.
Crossrail will add 10% capacity to London’s rail network. It will serve 40 stations, connecting Reading and Heathrow in the west with Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. TfL-run Crossrail services through central London will commence in December 2018. An estimated 200 million passengers will travel on Crossrail each year.
For more information visit:
www.crossrail.c...
Video released in 2015