There's absolutely no way that Crossrail could have been done with cut and cover. Take a look at this diagram of Bond street station, for example: https://www.

There's absolutely no way that Crossrail could have been done with cut and cover. Take a look at this diagram of Bond street station, for example: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/3D-model-view-of-Bond-Street-Station-Upgrade-Existing-tunnels-in-transparent-colours_fig1_318128851 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/3D-model-view-of-Bond-St... You can't dig up the area around Bond street and close down existing tube services during construction. (The crossrail tunnels run under some existing lines.)