• Crossrail line 1 will create a brand new network of services linking areas to the east and west of London.
  
  
• The heart of the project is the construction of a new tunnelledroute across London, with new stations at Liverpool Street, Farringdon,Tottenham Court Road, Bond Street, Whitechapel and Paddington.
  
  
• Crossrail line 1 will allow services on existing suburban routes torun through London offering a range of possible services to stations such asShenfield via Stratford, and Ebbsfleet via the Isle of Dogs at Canary Wharfto the east, and Reading, Aylesbury, Watford Junction and Richmond andKingston to the west.
  
  
• Crossrail line 1 also includes an option to serve Heathrow Airport.

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Purpose

• Serving the City, the Isle of Dogs and the West End Crossrail line 1will provide a direct route to business, social and leisure destinations inBerkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex and Kent as well as centralLondon
• Interchanges with London Underground and the National Rail networkwill create additional journey opportunities within London and todestinations both north and south.
• The route will also help to regenerate areas such as PaddingtonBasin, Park Royal area, Lower Lea Valley and Thames Gateway.
• Crossrail would reduce overcrowding on Underground lines and reducecongestion at a number of busy stations.
  

• A peak service of 24 trains per hour (with a design that will provide for future capacity upgrades).
• The construction of totally new Crossrail infrastructure in thecentral London area will allow features such as full access for mobilityimpaired people to be included as an integrated part of the design.
• Interchanges will be provided with Thames Trains, First GreatWestern, Chiltern, London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, Thameslink,First Great Eastern, Anglia, South West Trains, Silverlink Metro andpossibly North Kent services.
• Crossrail will provide a major boost to the development of London'sintegrated transport network, complementing the planned Thameslink 2000services, via an interchange at Farringdon, and East London Line Extensionsat Whitechapel.
  
  

• The project is now undergoing the necessary consultation, design development and planning approval processes.
• If this work proceeds to the expected programme Crossrail line 1services could begin running in early 2012.