Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to announce the (a) terms of references for and (b) identity of the Chairman of the independent review of Crossrail 2; and when that review will be required to report.

As part of the government’s commitment that transport spending across the country advances in lockstep, in partnership with Transport for London, we have established the Independent Affordability Review to further develop Crossrail 2, chaired by Mike Gerrard. It will cover:

• Funding – assessing options for additional funding sources beyond those already proposed, the resilience of funding sources and the equity of funding proposals;
• Finance – procurement approaches, stress testing financing options and improving clarity of financing policies; and,
• Cost and Risk – assessing options to re-phase delivery and capital expenditure, reviewing scheme scope and value engineering opportunities.

We expect the review to conclude in summer 2018.