LONDON, United Kingdom—Toronto mayor John Tory’s recent visit to London, England, is being regarded as a success, with transportation top of mind.

Tory and Councillor Michael Thompsonm, chair of the city’s economic Development committee, recently gave highlights of the business mission, which took place from Oct. 21 to 23.

During the trip, London’s transportation planning and development was explored at meetings with Patrick McLoughlin, U.K. secretary of state for transport, and Terry Morgan, chairman of Crossrail. The construction site for Crossrail, which the mayor notes has many parallels to SmartTrack, was also toured.

The Crossrail is Europe’s largest construction project, a release states, with work beginning in May 2009. It is slated to "transform rail transport" in London and the south east, increasing central London rail capacity by 10 per cent.

The route will run over 100 kilometres from Reading and Heathrow in the west, through new tunnels under central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

There will be 40 Crossrail stations including 10 new stations and the total funding available for the project is £14.8 billion or about $23 billion.

The delegation also visited the Canary Wharf business district and met with U.K. businesses looking to invest in Toronto or expand their current Toronto-based operation, a release reads. They also met with a number of Toronto technology companies currently operating in the U.K.