Two lines are currently proposed, one from west to east, the other from south-west to north-east. Crossrail line 1 would be a new tunnel from just west of Paddington station to east of Liverpool Street station. It would have underground stations connected to existing mainline and tube stations at Paddington, Bond Street[?], Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon[?] where it would connect with the north-south Thameslink line, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel[?]. It could carry regional services from Reading and Heathrow Airport in the west and Amersham and Watford[?] in the north-west to Shenfield[?] in Essex or Ebbsfleet[?] in Kent at the eastern end. This east-west route was previously proposed in the early 1990s but was rejected by Parliament in 1994.
Crossrail line 2 would involve a new tunnel from Victoria station[?] to Kings Cross station via Tottenham Court Road. This route was previously safeguarded for the proposed tube-gauge "Chelsea-Hackney Line".
Cross London Rail Links Ltd is the company responsible for creating Crossrail. It is publicly owned as a joint venture of Transport for London and the Strategic Rail Authority[?], and has £154 million of public funding, but the structure for funding the lines themselves (on the order of £10 billion) has not been finalised. It hopes that services will begin on line 1 by 2012 and on line 2 in around 2016.
See also: British railway system
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