https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/crossrail-latest-transport-boss-reveals-new-line-has-no-chance-of-opening-this-year-and-he-has-no-a4053976.html

Crossrail latest: Transport boss reveals new line has no chance of
opening this year and he has no idea when it will be

Excerpt:

Transport chiefs have revealed the crisis-hit Crossrail line has no
chance of opening this year — and they have no idea when it will.

The project’s new chief executive told Mayor Sadiq Khan he faced a
“huge” task and hopes of the £17.6 billion line being ready this
autumn were non-existent.

“I can’t see how this job can be delivered in calendar year 2019,”
Mark Wild said. “I don’t actually know when it will be delivered after
that.”

It came as one figure close to the project warned it could be “two or
three years” before services are running fully through the central
section between Abbey Wood and Paddington.

Crossrail had been due to be opened by the Queen on December 9 last
year. But the date was abandoned last August when major problems with
signalling and incomplete stations were made public — and a
provisional new date of this autumn was announced.

The Transport for London board was told yesterday that the autumn
opening was no longer feasible and the full scale of the problems
remained unknown. The new Crossrail chairman Tony Meggs added: “We
still don’t have absolute clarity with exactly where we are. We still
don’t know what we need to know.”

Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat leading a London Assembly
investigation into Crossrail, said today: “This candid admission of
just how seriously Crossrail will be delayed raises even further
issues as to how the line was held for so long that it would open in
December 2018.”

Mr Wild said an “orange army” of 6,000 to 7,000 contractors was
costing £30 million a week and morale had dropped “off the cliff”.

Costs have soared £2.8 billion over the £14.8 billion budget, with
London firms having to pay more in business rates and TfL losing £600
million in fares.

Mr Wild said there had been a “massive step forward” when the first
train entered the central tunnels to start testing on January 14.

But there were “many, many weeks” of trials to come, and it will take
until the summer before trains can be fully tested. He said he was
“less certain” how long it would take to complete the nine “huge” new
stations, with Paddington, Whitechapel and Tottenham Court Road among
those with the biggest problems.

The stations were unlikely to be finished before the end of summer.

Mr Wild said: “There are 60,000 individual items on Crossrail that
need controlling and integrating. The task is huge. I still don’t have
an opening date for you.”

.... continues

For once I agree with Caroline Pidgeon. It's inexcusable that
until quite recently we were being told that Crossrail was on
schedule and everything was proceeding smoothly. I think the
flannel merchants - the more uncouth expression is better -
should be identified and their careers affected.

In message , at 23:32:27 on
Thu, 31 Jan 2019, Recliner remarked:

We still don’t know what we need to know.

Maybe they need to hire Donald Rumsfeld as a planning consultant.
--
Roland Perry

On Fri, 1 Feb 2019 11:06:30 +0000, Robin9
wrote:


For once I agree with Caroline Pidgeon. It's inexcusable that
until quite recently we were being told that Crossrail was on
schedule and everything was proceeding smoothly. I think the
flannel merchants - the more uncouth expression is better -
should be identified and their careers affected.

The FT had an analysis a month or so ago. One of the things it
disclosed, which I'd not previously heard, was that Crossrail Ltd was
structured to minimise the opportunities for political meddling.

So, TfL and the DfT only had one representative each on the board, and
basically the management was allowed to get on with its job so long as
the project was running well, defined as being on time and on or below
budget. What the cunning devisers of this structure had presumably
failed to anticipate was that it gave the management a very strong
incentive to keep saying that the project was indeed on time and below
budget long after that had ceased to be entirely correct. Only when
they couldn't hide the problems any longer did they start owning up to
the fact that it was at least months late, and that all the budget
contingencies had been used up.

Initially, they tried to blame it on the exploding transformer, but
it's now clear that at least some of the stations are many months
late, and that the tunnels only became ready for test running in
January, a month after the line was supposed to have opened. So,
although the 345s were late, and weren't capable of test running
through the tunnels until quite recently, that's not the main cause of
the delay.

On Fri, 1 Feb 2019 11:06:30 +0000
Robin9 wrote:
For once I agree with Caroline Pidgeon. It's inexcusable that
until quite recently we were being told that Crossrail was on
schedule and everything was proceeding smoothly. I think the
flannel merchants - the more uncouth expression is better -
should be identified and their careers affected.

Interestingly the shops on sub level 3 at the crossrail station at canary
wharf have closed and the level has been shut off. Presumably they went out of
business or just quit when the crossrail opening didn't happen since they had
zero passing trade.

On Mon, 4 Feb 2019 10:58:19 +0000 (UTC), wrote:
On Mon, 4 Feb 2019 09:32:15 +0000
David Walters wrote:
On Fri, 1 Feb 2019 17:40:27 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:
On Fri, 1 Feb 2019 11:06:30 +0000
Robin9 wrote:
For once I agree with Caroline Pidgeon. It's inexcusable that
until quite recently we were being told that Crossrail was on
schedule and everything was proceeding smoothly. I think the
flannel merchants - the more uncouth expression is better -
should be identified and their careers affected.

Interestingly the shops on sub level 3 at the crossrail station at canary
wharf have closed and the level has been shut off. Presumably they went out
of
business or just quit when the crossrail opening didn't happen since they had

zero passing trade.

I don't think those have ever opened. They have been used for temporary
art installations but otherwise have been empty. There are a handful of
vacant retail units elsewhere on the estate so there isn't a big rush
to open them up.

When I worked over there a couple of years ago there was an upmarket bike
shop there IIRC.

That was on -2
(https://www.bespokecycling.com/blog/...-canary-wharf), it has
closed.

The space is now Barry's Bootcamp which was already planned in October
so it doesn't seem like Crossrail being delayed was the direct cause of
Bespoke closing.

On 2019-01-31 23:32:27 +0000, Recliner said:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/crossrail-latest-transport-boss-reveals-new-line-has-no-chance-of-opening-this-year-and-he-has-no-a4053976.html


Crossrail latest: Transport boss reveals new line has no chance of
opening this year and he has no idea when it will be

Not being morbid (except I am) there must be real risk of the eponymous
checking out before the opening.

On Mon, 4 Feb 2019 21:11:00 +0000, eastender wrote:

On 2019-01-31 23:32:27 +0000, Recliner said:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/crossrail-latest-transport-boss-reveals-new-line-has-no-chance-of-opening-this-year-and-he-has-no-a4053976.html


Crossrail latest: Transport boss reveals new line has no chance of
opening this year and he has no idea when it will be

Not being morbid (except I am) there must be real risk of the eponymous
checking out before the opening.

Yes, I had the same feeling, but felt it best not to say so in public.

On 05/02/2019 15:24, Recliner wrote:
On Mon, 4 Feb 2019 21:11:00 +0000, eastender wrote:

On 2019-01-31 23:32:27 +0000, Recliner said:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/crossrail-latest-transport-boss-reveals-new-line-has-no-chance-of-opening-this-year-and-he-has-no-a4053976.html


Crossrail latest: Transport boss reveals new line has no chance of
opening this year and he has no idea when it will be

Not being morbid (except I am) there must be real risk of the eponymous
checking out before the opening.

Yes, I had the same feeling, but felt it best not to say so in public.


IMO very wise of you given what section II of The Treason Act 1351 has
to say about compassing the death of the Queen.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Ed...5/2/section/II

Not all bad news for Eastender though: the punishment is no longer to be
hanged, drawn and quartered

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On 05/02/2019 15:48, Robin wrote:
On 05/02/2019 15:24, Recliner wrote:
On Mon, 4 Feb 2019 21:11:00 +0000, eastender wrote:

On 2019-01-31 23:32:27 +0000, Recliner said:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/crossrail-latest-transport-boss-reveals-new-line-has-no-chance-of-opening-this-year-and-he-has-no-a4053976.html



Crossrail latest: Transport boss reveals new line has no chance of
opening this year and he has no idea when it will be

Not being morbid (except I am) there must be real risk of the eponymous
checking out before the opening.

Yes, I had the same feeling, but felt it best not to say so in public.


IMO very wise of you given what section II of The Treason Act 1351 has
to say about compassing the death of the Queen.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Ed...5/2/section/II

Not all bad news for Eastender though: the punishment is no longer to be
hanged, drawn and quartered


Did Croydon Tramlink ever get punished for their ticket machines
portraying money with Prince Charles on it?

--
Basil Jet - Current favourite song...
What by Bruce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtJEAud9vao