Crossrail

Volterra has been working in partnership with Buchanans to develop the economic analysis for Crossrail, a new East to West train link for London.  Our work has changed the debate on the valuation of large transportation projects, refocusing attention on the economic benefits enabled by the scheme and the implications for productivity and tax revenues. This has been achieved by bringing the concept of agglomeration back to centre stage and finding ways to attach a value to the effect.

 

The first of two recent reports covered a valuation of the costs of delaying the decision for whether to go ahead with the scheme or not. The costs include construction cost increases, scheme redesign, transport and planning blight as well as lost benefits. Our estimate for the mid point of the range of possible costs values a year’s delay at £1.5 billion.

 

The second report revised the estimation of the economic benefits of Crossrail. The report outlines the argument for Wider Economic benefits, discussing and updating the key assumptions in the process.  The unpicking of conservative assumptions and the use of the latest research published by the DfT uplifts the valuation of Crossrail from £20bn to between £36 billion and £67 billion.

 

On 5th October 2007 the government announced that a deal had been struck to finance Crossrail. This represents a major milestone in a campaign in which Volterra has been heavily involved. Our work has been crucial in making the case that this significant investment has benefits to the UK and to London that are entirely overlooked by the standard approach used to decide on infrastructure projects. With construction starting in 2010, Volterra will continue to work on the project to ensure that the strategy remains on track.