Crossrail project passes Canary Wharf station milestone

Three years before the trains arrive, London's new £16bn Crossrail railway line celebrates its first milestone on Friday, when the Canary Wharf station building and roof gardens open to the public.

The arrival of trains at the underground station in 2019 will underpin a forecast near doubling of the Canary Wharf population over the next 10 years, or another 100,000 people.

The new 85-mile Crossrail line will stretch from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Abbeywood and Shenfield in the east and expects to bring an extra 1.5m people within 45 minutes reach of central London.

The six-storey deep 256-metre long concrete "station" box at Canary Wharf has been built in the middle of a dock. Overall, it is taller than the Canada One tower at Canary Wharf, with its base 28m below water level.

Given the proximity of the trading floors of HSBC and Bank of America, Japanese hydraulic piling machines were used to drill the 400 steel pipes into the water because this reduced the chances of shaking nearby buildings.

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Developers have paid £150m towards the £500m cost of the station. The remaining £350m comes from taxpayers.

Michael Bryant, operations executive for Canary Wharf Group, called it a "good example of the private and public sector working together to deliver infrastructure".

Construction on the project started in 2009 and a National Audit Office report last year said it would generate £1.97 in benefits for every £1 spent.

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