You cannot con us, Mr Darling

You have been sold a pup. On Monday of this week you read: "Crossrail gets go- ahead". You thought that at last this great project could proceed. On the day the Government handed the Tube to the Mayor and people of London, you thought it had approved London's first rapid transit link, from Paddington and the West to the City and points east. With passengers sweltering at 98 degrees in stop-start trains, New Labour was offering a vision of airconditioned bliss, speeding back and forth under the metropolis. O Happy Day.

Whenever I hear the words central government and Crossrail in one breath, I count the fingers on both hands and race to the kitchen to check the spoons.

This project was first mooted in 1948. It was planned in the mid-Eighties and formed the centrepiece of the Tories' Central London Rail Study. In 1989 the "go-ahead" was again announced with an office and a massive £144 million devoted to surveying the route and planning its building and finance.

This planning went into top gear when the present Government came to power and declared its "unwavering" commitment. It devoted another £154 million for more studies and private-finance surveys. A Central London Rail Links company was formed with smart headquarters off Victoria Street, now jointly owned by the Government's Strategic Rail Authority and the Mayor's Transport for London.

This public-sector company, with a staff of 200, is dripping with executives and consultants. That makes 14 years and £300 million planned spending already on Crossrail, with not a single hole dug in the ground. Like the British Library, it is a classic Whitehall project.

So what has happened this week? I'll tell you what happened: pure, utter, untrammelled and undiluted spin. The Government was saying goodbye to a catastrophic two decades of running London's Tube - and not building Crossrail - and wanted to look good for a day.

The Government last declared "support in principle" for Crossrail as recently as May. Support had existed for years. Mr Darling was saying nothing new.

He then declared he would be "consulting the Treasury" on how much public money be forthcoming. He has been doing that, too, for at least a decade. How else did the transport department get £300 million for Crossrail out of the Treasury?

Mr Darling then declared he would be forming "a team" to look into the feasibility and planning of the project. What on earth does he think he has been doing for 14 years with £300 million of our money?

If Whitehall now forms a team on Crossrail, the National Audit Office should be round at the Crossrail company's Victoria Street office in a flash and demand full disclosure of invoices and expenses.

Vast sums appear to have vanished into consultants' pockets and thin air. Londoners should be told what value they have received for all this money. If a local council behaved like this, John Prescott would send in investigators tomorrow.

Three litmus tests were required this week to show Mr Darling's sincerity. The first was a Crossrail bill in the next Parliamentary session. A bill exists in draft and could be presented in a week. Mr Darling said there would be no such bill, at least not before the 2004-5 session.

The second test, related to the first, was would Crossrail be ready for a London Olympics in 2012? The answer again was no.

The third and crucial test was would the Government announce the funding structure for the project? The answer was also no. Mr Darmightling offered no government money, no business rate levy or other support and just a general hope that the private sector would provide.

This takes us not one inch forward from the position in

1989. All that has changed is that the estimated cost of this Tube has gone from £650 million to £10-£12 billion.

Extra capacity on the cross-London route has been top priority for decades. It is equalled in urgency only by a new Chelsea- to- Hackney north-south line. The sole new Tube line opened by the Government during its time of ownership was the Jubilee line. This was never a priority and was built only because it was demanded by Mrs Thatcher's pet project, Canary Wharf.

As of yesterday, responsibility for London Underground has been deposited on the shoulders of the Mayor, Ken Livingstone. I have a proposal to make.

He should send bailiffs round to the Crossrail building and ransack its papers and plans.

He should announce his intention to proceed with the project in time for the Olympics.

He should get London's MPs to present a bill to Parliament and challenge the Government to refuse it passage.

The Mayor should then immediately start letting contracts. He has an offer already, from Arup ' s private Crossrail consortium which suggested to Mr Darling last October that it could build a core route with no public finance but secured against fare revenue and incremental property values. It heard nothing.

Mr Livingstone and his transport aide, Bob Kiley, now run a huge corporation. The Greater London Authority has an annual turnover of £8 billion, large assets and has almost no debt. It has access to buoyant fares revenue and borough rates income. It has handled Britain's only successful public/private transport project, the congestion charge, on time and on budget.

There is no way Mr Darling is going to get this project built. Mr Livingstone and Mr Kiley could do it off their own bat, and should start now in defiance of the Government.

Otherwise London can kiss goodbye both to a better Tube and to the Olympics.