The Series
The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway: Countdown to Opening follows the team of more than ten thousand engineers and construction workers – close up - as they race to build ten new stations in Central London, lay thirty miles of track, and build a fleet of sixty-six new 200m long trains to complete the brand new subterranean railway under the capital – Crossrail – London’s new Underground.
Costing almost fifteen billion pounds and taking ten years to build, it’s one of the biggest engineering projects in Europe. In the last series we witnessed gigantic boring machines navigating their way beneath city infrastructure and under the Thames. But now comes the tricky part. Construction work spills out over the hoardings and into the streets. The challenges facing the engineering teams are immense – from constructing platforms and concourses the size of an aircraft carrier hidden under Oxford Street, to building a 130m long great glass canopy that soars above Paddington Station – all while keeping London moving.