London’s £14.8bn Crossrail project has unveiled is first train tunnel, marking a key milestone in modernising the transport network in the city.
Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander, infrastructure minister Lord Deighton and deputy mayor for transport Isabel Dedring gained a glimpse of how the tunnel will look when it opens in 2018.
In addition, they helped enclose a time capsule in the remaining section of ‘Phyllis’, Crossrail’s first tunnelling machine. Phyllis bored 6.8km between Royal Oak and Farringdon stations in an 18-month period.
Alexander said: "Crossrail will transform the way people travel, slashing journey times from the City to Heathrow by around 30 minutes and increasing London’s rail capacity by 10%.
"This is just one part of the government’s plan to invest in our future through growth boosting projects."
Once completed, the project could transform train travel across London and the south-east, and it would contribute £42bn to the UK economy.
Lord Deighton said: "The project will create the equivalent of 55,000 new jobs, support thousands of business and produce lasting benefits for the whole country through the supply chain."
Crossrail stated that it is creating a new generation of tunnelers, with many of them undergoing training at the £13m Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy in east London.
Another three 1,000t, 150m long tunneling machines are scheduled to complete tunnelling at Farringdon in 2014.
Image: The completion of first train tunnel marks a key milestone in the Crossrail project. Photo: courtesy of Crossrail Ltd.
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