The opening of the Elizabeth Line has been put back by nine months to accommodate completion of final infrastructure and testing of the new railway line.
Stretching over 60 miles from Reading in the west to Shenfield in the east, the Elizabeth Line was scheduled to open in December 2018 but will start a full service in autumn 2019.
Europe’s largest infrastructure project is being delivered by Crossrail Limited, which said ‘sufficient testing time is required to introduce the next phase of the railway – the central section between Paddington and Abbey Wood – in a way that can be guaranteed to be safe and reliable.’
It added that more time is needed by contractors to complete fit-out activity in the central tunnels and to develop railway systems software. Testing is in progress but more time is needed to complete the full range of integrated tests.
Simon Wright, Crossrail chief executive said: “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 currently operate between Shenfield in Essex and Liverpool Street mainline station, and between Paddington mainline station and Hayes & Harlington, in readiness for the full opening. The trains are also being tested in the Heathrow tunnels.
When the central section of the Elizabeth Line opens, the railway will initially operate as three separate services made up of Paddington (Elizabeth Line station) to Abbey Wood via central London, Paddington (mainline station) to Heathrow Terminals 2, 3 and 4, and Liverpool Street to Shenfield.
Once up and running, the Elizabeth Line is expected to add 10 per cent to central London’s rail capacity.
Has this delay just been detected as a requirement to deliver the project up and running and how much is this delay going to cost? The NAO should be hammering on the door of this one pdq to find out what went wrong and why. Is this another addition to the sorry litany of project overruns on time and budget? Lessons do not seem to be learned. No doubt some spin will bne put on this but it is a worrying development. What now for Crossrail 2 and HS2?
I wonder if our Victorian ancestors had the same issue. Almost certainly not! They managed to struggle by without an NAO, or any external checking’ of anything. Or any auditors. Yes, they had clerks (who they wisely retained in the counting house:on one-legged-stools -so that if they fell asleep due to the absolute boredom of what they were there to do, they fell over) but they sensibly kept them well away from the Board (should that be bored?) Room.
Lets be fair: hopefully the new system/facilities will be in place and operating for a century or more, so 9 more months delay at the start…not really relevant.
Maybe the people of the Victorian era could have done with one, certainly in York the name George Hudson springs to mind.
I am reminded of a comment by an Architect who was asked why the builders of the middle ages were so able to produce vaulting spires and huge constructions that stood for 500 years and edifices of the mid 20th century were not. In paraphrase his answer was ” You don’t see the ones that fell down” similarly the bubble blowers of the 19th C and those before are usually long forgotten
The big difficulty in designing complex projects is the shear uncertainty of these and how to allow for these uncertainties. If larger contingencies in cost and timescale were used the projects would never get off the ground. As with all projects, the best information available is used in developing the scheme, then the real, often unexpected consequences are faced. Civil Engineering projects are probably the worst to cost accurately as below the ground cannot be well understood until large holes are dug; however, new defence projects often have similar problems of uncertainty in the ease of development of new technologies.
Agree that real auditing is essential and not usually well done …. see Carilion.
To Quote Baz Luhrmann and “Sunscreen”
“Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will Philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.”
For instance how on earth did Bazelgette get the funds to build a sewer system that was over-engineered by at least 4 times and that was capable of lasting close to 150 years before replacement? He must have cooked the books because the Victorians were not prone to large displays of unavoidable wealth dispersal.
Thinking back to when the Great Western Railway changed from Broad to Standard Gauge, virtually all the railway tracks from London to Devon, Cornwall and Wales were changed during a weekend. Could we accomplish a task of that magnitude now?