Exclusive: More than £115M spent on mothballed Crossrail 2 project

The money was spent on developing the route for the now mothballed scheme designed to connect south west London with north London.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has spent £58.4M on Crossrail 2 development work, while Transport for London (TfL) spend amounts to £57.3M, information obtained via the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act reveals.

TfL began winding down activity on the scheme at the end of last year as part of conditions attached to its £1.8bn emergency funding package from government.  

Of the total £115.8M spent up until December 2020, more than £83M has been spent on consultancy fees.

Network Rail received £27.5M for its work on the project, the largest sum paid out. It is understood that this money was used to assess the feasibility of integrating Network Rail’s existing stations and railway network with Crossrail 2.

Arup is the highest paid consultant, having received just under £12M for design consultancy for the route’s tunnels and systems as well as work on the southern half of the line.  

Arcadis was paid £11.3M for multidisciplinary engineering services, while Mott MacDonald received £7.8M for various design jobs including a £5M fee for developing the northern section of the line.

Other consultants to receive six figure sums include Aecom, Cast, G&T, MTEW and Nichols (see full breakdown of Crossrail 2 consultancy payments below).

Crossrail 2 annual spend

Under the terms of the government funding agreement, TfL will prioritise “safeguarding activity” on the Crossrail 2 project and bring “an orderly end to consultancy work as soon as possible”.  

TfL commissioner Andy Byford said that the scheme “will still be needed in the future” but conceded that it will not be realistically affordable before 2030.

TfL’s revised business plan also prioritises schemes such as Docklands Light Railway and Northern line upgrades over the Crossrail 2 project.  

The revised plan also concludes that the proposed Bakerloo Line Extension will be unlikely to be progressed before the 2030s.

A separate FOI request submitted by NCE reveals that £6.2M has been spent on developing the Bakerloo Line Extension since 2017.  

Almost half of that amount (£2.9M) has been paid to Atkins for engineering design work, with a further £1.1M paid to Mott MacDonald for additional design consultancy.  

Like Crossrail 2, land for the Bakerloo Line Extension has been safeguarded so the project can be restarted when funding becomes available.

A TfL spokesperson added: "The pandemic, and subsequent impact on our finances, has meant that we have to be realistic about what is currently affordable.

“Very large projects from the Mayor’s Transport Strategy, particularly Crossrail 2 and the Bakerloo Line Extension, are still relevant and aligned to the Department for Transport’s decarbonisation plan.

“However, given current affordability constraints, our immediate priority for these schemes is progressing safeguarding as they are still likely to be needed in the future to support long-term growth and modal shift in London.

“The work developing proposals for these schemes will still be used when we are in a position to confirm funding in future.”

Full breakdown of Crossrail 2 spend

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