Dip plans £150 million West London link
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• The Department of Transport is considering the development of a £150 million dual carriageway in London between Shepherd's Bush roundabout and the Thames, along the route of the existing Underground and British Rail lines.
The proposed route, described by the RHA and the ETA as the "most important development in London's archaic road network in 20 years." would relieve severe traffic congestion in the Earls Court and Hammersmith area. Both British Rail and London Transport have agreed to the Government's plans to develop the road on the existing rail route. The Department of Transport says it would be possible to fit a road within the rail corridor at the level of the railway track, compatible with future requirements including Channel Tunnel rail traffic.
Roads and traffic minister Peter Bottomley has written to the local planning authorities seeking their comments on the scheme, but the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has already rejected it.
Council leader Gordon Prentice says: "This Council and the majority of local people are dead against any scheme of this type and we will resist the building of it in any way we can."
Prentice claims the London assessment studies, established by the Department of Transport to consider the capital's traffic problems, are "window dressing". The Department has released its proposals for the West London relief road even before its as sessment study has considered all the options, he says.
The Department of Transport says it is possible that a public inquiry would be necessary before development could begin, possibly in the late 1990s.
p Development of the West London relief road could be 'hastened if DTp proposals for changes in the assessment of road schemes are accepted. The Department plans to give leisure time savings and casualty costs greater weighting when assessing proposals.