THE MAYOR’S DRAFT TRANSPORT STRATEGY CHAMPIONS CROSSRAIL 2 AND SUBURBAN DEVOLUTION
Building Crossrail 2, devolving responsibility for suburban rail services to Transport for London and creating a south London metro are all key ambitions stated in London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s draft transport strategy, which was released for consultation in June.
The strategy seeks a shift away from car usage so that by 2041 80% of trips in the capital are made on foot, by cycle or using public transport.
It is suggested this shift will ‘help address many of London’s health problems, by reducing inactivity and cleaning up the air’, while also helping eliminate the ‘blight of road danger’.
To achieve this, it is estimated the public transport system will need to cater for around 15 million trips per day.
Delivering the capacity required ‘can only be achieved through building new lines, in particular Crossrail 2, and getting the most out of the existing network’, says the strategy. Crossrail 2, the new north east to south west rail link using 37km tunnels from Wimbledon to Tottenham Hale and New Southgate, would offer a frequency of up to 30 trains per hour, increasing London’s rail capacity by 10% and reducing crowding on existing services.
