This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/31/london-crossrail-opening-postponed-until-autumn-next-year

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
London Crossrail opening postponed until autumn next year London Crossrail opening postponed until autumn next year
(35 minutes later)
London’s new east-west railway Crossrail will miss its December opening date and services will not begin until autumn next year, a spokesman for the project has said. The opening of the £15bn Crossrail line across London will be delayed by up to a year, it has been announced, after months of rumours that the engineering scheme was facing increasing difficulties.
More time is needed to complete “final infrastructure and extensive testing” to ensure a “safe and reliable railway” is delivered, according to Crossrail Limited. The train line, which has been decades in the planning, and will link west and east London with faster, high-capacity services, was due to open in December.
Services were due to begin running by the end of the year, but the central section between Paddington and Abbey Wood will not be opened until autumn 2019. But Crossrail executives admitted that it would not be ready for its planned official opening as the Elizabeth line by the Queen, after a series of problems and delays.
The rail minister, Jo Johnson, announced last month that the scheme’s budget had been increased from £14.8bn to 15.4bn due to “cost pressures”. It said the central section of the line, travelling under the capital from Paddington to Abbey Wood, would now not open until autumn 2019 to complete the building work and allow for extensive testing to ensure it opened as a safe and reliable railway.
The railway is known as Crossrail during the construction phase but will become the Elizabeth line once services begin. Critics accused the government of smuggling out bad news before the return of parliament – and questioned why Crossrail executives had been rewarded with new jobs.
When it is fully opened, trains will run from Reading and Heathrow in the west through 13 miles of new tunnels to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. Andrew Adonis, the former chair of the national infrastructure commission, said: “It’s clearly a further massive catastrophe for Chris Grayling, who didn’t say a word in public about the scale of the crisis. He himself moved Sir Terry Morgan to be chair of HS2 and that was soon after Andrew Wolstenholme, the chief executive, left.
More details soon … “The biggest infrastructure project in Europe, in a state of crisis, lost both its leaders with Grayling being Awol throughout. To me it’s utterly inexplicable. How can it give anyone confidence that HS2 will be delivered?”
Lord Adonis said that the full scale of the problems had yet to emerge, with the industry talking of major issues with signalling systems, and predicted that the opening could now be delayed until 2020.
Crossrail bosses, paid some of the largest salaries in the public sector, had long boasted that the long and complex project was being delivered on time and on budget, but earlier this summer the government and Transport for London were forced to increase the £14.8bn budget by another £650m. Design, construction and engineering has lasted 10 years with different infrastructure contracts, new trains and three signalling systems.
The Crossrail chief executive, Simon Wright, said:“The Elizabeth line is one of the most complex and challenging infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the UK and is now in its final stages. We have made huge progress with the delivery of this incredible project but we need further time to complete the testing of the new railway.
“We are working around the clock with our supply chain and Transport for London to complete and commission the Elizabeth line.”
Elizabeth line trains are operating already overground between Shenfield and Liverpool Street and between Paddington and Hayes and Harlington. Crossrail said construction activity was drawing to a close: an assessment in June said the project was 93% complete.
An electrical explosion in east London earlier this year exacerbated construction problems and caused further delays, but Crossrail had maintained until now that the December opening remained possible.
The Elizabeth line should eventually boost the space for passengers to travel through central London by 10%. The line will link the West End with Heathrow and Canary Wharf and serve suburbs in the east and west, and more than 200 million passengers are expected to use it every year.
CrossrailCrossrail
Rail transportRail transport
TransportTransport
Rail industryRail industry
LondonLondon
newsnews
Share on FacebookShare on Facebook
Share on TwitterShare on Twitter
Share via EmailShare via Email
Share on LinkedInShare on LinkedIn
Share on PinterestShare on Pinterest
Share on Google+Share on Google+
Share on WhatsAppShare on WhatsApp
Share on MessengerShare on Messenger
Reuse this contentReuse this content