MP's Lobby Crossrail

1.08.00pm GMT Wed 7th Jan 2004

On Friday, the three local MPs, Vincent Cable, Jenny Tonge and Edward Davey (together with Councillor Elengorn and Richmond's prospective Lib Dem candidate Susan Kramer) met Norman Haste and the senior management team at Crossrail to seek reassurances on the Crossrail project.

Vincent Cable raised the rumours that Crossrail might not, as planned earlier, go beyond Richmond to Kingston as originally planned; Crossrail vehemently denied the stories. They also confirmed to him that the Strawberry Hill crossing would not be forced to close and that the trains could additionally stop at St Margaret's, where platforms would need to be lengthened.

Vincent Cable said: "we were warned that the Crossrail project 'hangs by a thread'. There are other competing priorities for government backed public transport projects; and the negative attitude of Richmond Council has not helped".

"But for the vast majority of people in the borough and particularly those in Teddington, Twickenham, Hampton Wick and Strawberry Hill there are potentially very substantial benefits. That is why we must get behind the project and, to expedite it, find a practical solution to the genuinely difficult problem of the 60 families in Richmond affected by blight".