Fears over Crossrail 2 as approval delayed and Conservatives leave it out of manifesto

Fears have been expressed in the media about the future of Crossrail 2 after confirmation that its business case will not be approved by the latest date TfL had wanted and the Conservatives left the project out of the party's manifesto.

The City AM newspaper in London reported disappointment from property consultancy Daniel Watney LLP that the project had been "dropped" from the manifesto, arguing that this would hit business confidence in the capital. But it also spoke to TfL, who said that "the original plan to submit [a hybrid bill] by the autumn of 2019" was not affected by not having the business case approval in the spring as hoped.

City Metric said the day after that Crossrail 2 was "the one major project that does appear to have got the axe," highlighting that it was included in the 2015 Conservative manifesto but was not mentioned this time round, despite it having one of "the highest benefit-to-cost ratio schemes going in the UK". It adds: "If the Government wants to move away from its predecessor's focus on London, it pretty much has to neglect high BRC London projects in favour of lower or incalculable BCR projects elswhere". 

The newly-elected mayors of Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region earlier this month said HS3 should be a higher priority than Crossrail 2.