KHOODEELAAR! has told you so for 6 years and 6 months: That Crossrail was crass.That it was crassly conceived...Crassly peddled..

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KHOODEELAAR! has told you so for 6 years and 6 months: That Crossrail was crass.That it was crassly conceived...Crassly peddled...That Crossrail was not about addressing transport priorities but that it was a tool, a pretext  for Big Business contractors, to use to rob UK public of £Billions

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=ahXPfZ2.uH.M

Crossrail Funds Come From U.K. Treasury Asset Sales (Update1) 

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By Robert Hutton

July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Gordon Brown’s office said it’s committed to the 16 billion-pound ($26 billion) Crossrail project, saying future government asset sales will fund the rail link between Heathrow airport and the downtown London.

The Guardian newspaper reported today that the proposed East-West rail link may be delayed as the government cuts back spending after 2011. Brown’s spokesman Michael Ellam told reporters there were no firm spending plans beyond that date.

“The government remains committed to Crossrail,” Ellam said at his regular briefing in London. “We’re going to engage in an ambitious program of asset sales aiming to raise 16 billion pounds.”

With the U.K. in the midst of the worst recession since World War II, plans for future public spending are at the center of the political debate. Brown argues that if the opposition Conservatives win power, they will make cuts. They reply that the Treasury’s own figures suggest cuts as the costs of debt and welfare rise.

Under projections published by the Treasury in the annual budget in April, current spending will rise by 0.7 percent on average in the three years after 2011. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the capital budget will be cut on average by about 17.3 percent over that period, reducing overall total public expenditure by 0.1 percent on average each year.

Ellam said the Treasury figures are “projections.” “We’re not setting the envelope now,” he said. “We’ve not made any decisions about what capital spending is going to be post-2011.”

Crossrail is the largest single building project in the capital city. It will connect Heathrow Airport with the West End entertainment district and Canary Wharf starting in 2017 and help to boost capacity on the aging London Underground railway. Brown and London’s Conservative Mayor, Boris Johnson, said May 15 that Crossrail would go ahead despite the recession.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London atrhutton1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 2, 2009 12:10 EDT