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A proposed £27bn rail route from the north to the south of London should be a national priority, according to the head of Britain’s National Infrastructure Commission.

Andrew Adonis, head of the commission, said Transport for London, the capital’s agency for buses and trains, and the Department for Transport should be given funding to draw up a business case by March next year.

This would mean legislation could be put to parliament by late 2019 so the route, known as Crossrail 2, could open in 2033, he added. It would link the suburban railway network from Wimbledon to Tottenham Hale via a new tunnel under London.

Although the commission has endorsed the line, there have been questions about financing. Based on 2014 prices, the cost is estimated at £27bn-£32bn, twice as much as Crossrail 1, the new east-west line that is due to open in 2017. But Lord Adonis warned the capital would “grind to a halt” unless big improvements were made to the transport network.

The UK has a number of stalled infrastructure projects, including the nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point, and a third runway at Heathrow airport. The World Economic Forum ranks the quality of Britain’s infrastructure 24th in the world, down from 19th in 2006.

Transport for London has said it could raise more than half the cost of Crossrail 2. Funding could come from an increase in the “community infrastructure levy”, a charge on local businesses, property development at stations and selling land.

Additional income could also be raised from the extra stamp duty the government would collect because of the line’s effect on house prices and because it would encourage the construction of big housing developments.

Michèle Dix, managing director of Crossrail 2, welcomed the report and said “funding must be made available now to fully develop the scheme”.

Alexander Jan, a director at Arup, an engineering consultancy, said: “There is a practical issue of how soon you could get it off the ground. But we know from experience that the longer you leave building infrastructure, the more expensive it becomes in real terms.”

He said the government needed to give London and other regions more control over taxing and borrowing.

David Leam, infrastructure director at London First, a business lobby group, welcomed the recommendations. “Now we need the chancellor to extend his support beyond warm words and actually write a cheque to develop the scheme further.”