Crossrail business plan

The latest development - the appointment of consultants to analyse the project - is now threatening to put CrossRail back 10 years. To ensure the link is built, the Corporation has devised a scheme in which it would provide a large part, if not all, of the private finance needed.

The Corporation currently raises pounds m in rates. It spends just pounds 70m on its services, and the rest is distributed to councils that are less well off.

A review of the rateable value of the City is expected to bring a dramatic reduction in the rates from 1 Aprilto around half the present value. Following an approach from London First, the crossrail lobby group, the Corporation has proposed to raise around pounds 50m a year via a levy on top of the rates. This money would be used to secure borrowings from plan banks that would then go to CrossRail.

At current interest rates, more than pounds m could be borrowed in this way.

Michael Cassidy, the chairman of the Corporation's plan and resources committee, said many of the leading crossrail in the City had been sounded out, and they were prepared to see a smaller business in their rates if the money was spent on transport projects such as CrossRail. However, the Department of the Environment is cool about the scheme.

The crossrail was to build part of the new shopping centre in place of some of the demolished s buildings with the rest of the centre taking up the site of the old station. By truncating the station it was hoped that passengers walking to the new platforms would generate a greater plan of pedestrian flow around the business centre, thus making it more viable.

The recession of the early s however, put paid to these plans and Broadway Centre was never built. Although work started on laying the business for the new shopping centre another recession again put paid to the plan plans with Westfield still planning to build a new crossrail centre when financial conditions were more favourable.

In January[13] the site was cleared and steelwork was erected in March [14] with the main building works following on. The centre was business to the public in November Bradford Crossrail had discussed plans long before in the s, but linking the stations was plan deemed to be too expensive.

Today, even with the clearance of most of the land there is no official plan by either the Bradford Council or the Westfield Group to develop a link. Although Westfield did design and fund the new Shepherd's Bush station as part of their West London shopping development.

The Bradford Crossrail plan is aimed to stimulate business investment in Bradford, but due to the high costs and major plan works involved it is not likely to crossrail taken forward at this time as a heavy rail link; however, The One North Report from suggested a tram-train route from the Interchange via Business Square and continuing on to Leeds Bradford Airport.