CROSSRAIL IS A new network of railway lines, train tunnels, and stations that will make getting around London much easier and faster.
It is Europe’s largest construction project and it is now more than half complete.
With three years of work still left, the project manager released new images, this week, of the tunnelling work taking place under London.
Right now, the London Underground and other rail services are overcrowded. It can make for a hellish morning commute.
Crossrail will link up with those existing services to ease congestion.
The £14.8 billion project will also provide more direct travel routes, meaning it will take less time to get from A to B.
Construction of the Crossrail began in May 2009.
The first Crossrail services will start in 2018. It’s expected to carry around 200 million passengers each year.
Crossrail says that the new lines will increase the capacity of London’s current rail network by 10%.
The Crossrail project includes 26 miles of new rail tunnels under London.
Here’s the giant tunnel boring machine they’ve been using.
Each tunnelling machine weighs 1,000 tonnes. A total of 8 machines can carve 100 metres of new tunnels a week.
Here’s the tunnelling progress as of October 2014.
Ten new Crossrail stations are also under construction at Paddington, Tottenham Court Road, Bond Street, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, and Canary Wharf. Here’s an architect’s impression of the Tottenham Court Road Crossrail ticket hall.
This image of a platform tunnel at the new Bond Street station is part of the latest batch of pictures released by Crossrail.
More than 700 workers have been employed since construction began in 2012.
The tunnelling machine here is named Elizabeth.
The project is said to be on target in both time and money categories.
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