please empty your brain below
Which will happen first? —— Crossrail or Brexit?

Bob S | 26.04.19 - 7:16 a.m. | #

"over-promising is really simple"

*cough*

Sounds like something else that's often in the news

*cough*

Geofftech | 26.04.19 - 7:20 a.m. | #

also, i have a 50p bet with DG that 'liz is gonna snuff it (sorry!) before the line actually opens. because... irony.

Geofftech | 26.04.19 - 7:21 a.m. | #

Disappointing but suspect there is a link with the fact we don't continually run big projects like this in this country. If we had a rolling set of big infrastructure investment projects we would be able to learn from mistakes made in the past. But instead we do a project, and then we close the door and don't do any for ages. We lose the skills of how to manage projects like this.

Still, the good news is that in ten years time, no one will care!

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 26.04.19 - 7:23 a.m. | #

Nah - Liz is too well cared for, no falling over early evening, and laying on the floor until the carer comes around the next morning to do her breakfast (or found dead weeks later) for the likes of her.

This is the country where Owen Paterson told us that 'the badgers moved the goalposts', so lets blame them for the Crossrail delays too.

Still Anon | 26.04.19 - 7:54 a.m. | #

Crossrail should have started 20 weeks ago.
It may not start until 100 weeks time.
That's the scale of it.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 26.04.19 - 8:01 a.m. | #

I can't remember when it was, but I took my son for a trip to London, and at Paddington station there was a mock-up of Crossrail rolling-stock, in Network South-East livery! I think he was still at school at the time. (He is now 41.)

Peter Cameron | Homepage | 26.04.19 - 8:06 a.m. | #

... William Line, anybody?

D9000 | 26.04.19 - 8:08 a.m. | #

Geofftech, I hope Her Maj doesn't read DG's comments.

See you later in Kernow.

Petras409 | 26.04.19 - 8:10 a.m. | #

February 2022 - 70th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne - will we have through Abbey Wood-Heathrow services by then?

timbo | 26.04.19 - 8:18 a.m. | #

Decades, yes, decades before the start of this blog people were working on Crossrail. This final little blip is but a little blip.

B | 26.04.19 - 8:43 a.m. | #

I first went to Paris in 1975 and was wowed by the huge subterranean stations of the amazing RER Ligne A heading west from the city centre. I wondered when London would get the same treatment, it was a world away from our slam door suburban trains. Two years later and the RER was running east - west right through the city centre. The RER has been up and running so long they've already withdrawn the original trains. I'm still wondering when London will get the same treatment...

ap | 26.04.19 - 8:50 a.m. | #

The most remarkable thing is the delay in announcing the delay. How could a three year setback not have been recognised until three months before the scheduled opening ?

kev | 26.04.19 - 9:05 a.m. | #

McDonald's is in on this. Bond Street is missing from my monopoly board to win a new BMW mini.

E | 26.04.19 - 9:16 a.m. | #

Although TfL like to pretend it doesn't exist, Thameslink has been running through central London for 30 years now and it has several hugely-expanded stations.

Yes, it's only one line whereas the RER has five. But many of our Tube lines also go much further out than the Paris Metro does, and have taken over main line suburban routes, in some cases more than 100 years ago.

timbo | 26.04.19 - 10:24 a.m. | #

It's not just a UK problem.

In June 2012, I flew to Berlin, due to arrive at the new airport a couple of weeks after it opened. 26 days before the opening date it was postponed. The new airport still hasn't opened and may not open until 2021.

My favourite cock-up there: 750 display screens have already reached the end of their service life having been on for 6 years.

Michael Churchill | 26.04.19 - 10:44 a.m. | #

Staggering that EVEN with the central core delayed for at least 2 years, Bond Street still won't be ready. It'll be really interesting when the full story concerning that station comes out...

What also happened in the first 2 years when Sadiq was Mayor are of interest too, as by that stage of the project plenty of people would have known it was going badly wrong, but nobody told him (or he didn't ask the right questions).

Mikey C | 26.04.19 - 11:45 a.m. | #

And this will mean yet more delays for the Northern Line extension to Battersea Battersea Power Power Station Station. The Bakerloo will be pushed well into the '30s as will Crossrail 2 (now known as Very Cross Rail). As for the Sutton Tram that will be pushed into the 2040s, will be half the planned length and will be an Uber cab. Overground extension will be delayed by 20 years while engineers wait for rising sea levels to bring the Thames lapping up to Barking at which time it will be renamed Barking Riverside(it'll save a few bob too)

daveid76 | 26.04.19 - 12:34 p.m. | #

IMHO periods of London railway expansions are just like periods of Manchester United topping the top-tier league table -- every period lasts for a decade or two, with limbos or even contractions of similar length in between. Maybe it's just that we have been just past another period of expansion and are entering another limbo period.

Patrickov | 26.04.19 - 12:55 p.m. | #

I guess it’s still marginally better than ‘Thameslink 2000’, which had to be renamed as it ran so far late it was embarrassing.

When they finally tried to launch it last Summer, they found no-one actually knew how to make it work. So a lot of it was pulled until, possibly, maybe, this December 2019. Time will tell.

And again, like Crossrail, they continued right up until the actual launch day somehow imagining it would work despite not having trained any drivers or have all the new stock working. And nobody ended up being responsible. Madness.

I particularly enjoyed the TOC’s comments afterwards, where they protested “We DO have enough drivers! It’s just that they’re not trained on the routes or the rolling stock”, as if that made a blind bit of difference. (I’ll get off my soap box now..!)

Lew | 26.04.19 - 1:18 p.m. | #

Oi! Can we stop speculating about when this 'major project' is likely to cancelled please! I intend to be around for a bit longer!

E2R

Elizabeth II | Homepage | 26.04.19 - 2:18 p.m. | #

Too much gadgetry, that's the problem.

Anonymous | 26.04.19 - 4:01 p.m. | #

Thameslink is moire or less sorted now (long before December 2019) - unless you want to go to Maidstone

timbo | 26.04.19 - 4:10 p.m. | #

It makes perfect sense. Slow down, stretch it out and keep oneself in employment for bit longer.

UltraMan | 26.04.19 - 4:13 p.m. | #

If you want to see an example of other countries screwing up big infrastructure projects, look across the North Sea to the project to convert the perfectly good Schiedam to Hoek of Holland branch line into a Metro line and plug it into the Rotterdam metro net. Two years late, still no idea when it will open. And that was a pretty simple project.

Anyway, as a previous commentator said, once it's up and running we'll all forget about this delay. All big projects over run, it seems. That's life .

Toby Jenkins | 26.04.19 - 5:11 p.m. | #

Ah, but the Muscovites appear to be cracking on with their one.

Bob Penn | 26.04.19 - 5:39 p.m. | #

Also the North - South metro line in Amsterdam. Now open but years late with many problems along the way partly caused by notoriously difficult ground conditions in Amsterdam.

PC | 26.04.19 - 6:03 p.m. | #

Probably the most damaging aspect of Crossrail is that it has destroyed a carefully managed reputation that TfL could deliver projects effectively, on time and on budget. That was crucial in securing DfT and Treasury funding for capital works. A near 3 year delay and £2bn cost escalation will take a decade to get past.

For all the people ripping Thameslink to bits it is worth reflecting that many years of delay were caused by government policies. Firstly rail privatisation then Railtrack having no project competence then Labour pausing the project then it being rephased into two major chunks. Most of the actual engineering works were done pretty much on schedule. Not arguing that the timetable problems were a monumental fiasco *but* things have come broadly right. It's not perfect but the service is operating pretty well and the timetable is being built up.

Also worth reflecting that some of Crossrail's delay is also imposed by government as was a forced budget cut. A lot has gone wrong since which is not excusable. Let us hope that Crossrail do not repeat Thameslink's timetable and service build up issues.

PC | 26.04.19 - 6:04 p.m. | #

Three months before the initial opening date, we find out the project is going to be delayed by 2 years. Remember that Berlin's new airport was delayed 26 days before scheduled opening back in 2011, and is still not open today.

mlesche | 26.04.19 - 7:13 p.m. | #

Maybe a combination of old age and B fatigue is getting to me but whilst I can understand software and signalling problems causing a lengthy delay, I cannot imagine why a single station, Bond Street, is supposedly/actually so far behind schedule.

J. | 26.04.19 - 11:01 p.m. | #

Be grateful that you have this because the North gets (relatively) little spend. This amount of money for something in the North would never be spent.

Bob Twilliger | 27.04.19 - 12:54 p.m. | #

CrossRail's delay also stems from an inadequate critical path analysis - no allowance for things going wrong, so no recovery time in the programme.

The other key issue is scale - nothing of these dimensions and complexity has been built so far in London. Insufficient resource employed to complete the project and text the equipment.

Put these together and see that every lesson from the eventual opening of the Jubilee Line Extension has been forgotten or ignored.

A further issue was to ignore the lessons from the Victoria Line. That opened in stages, to knit the line into the public transport network. CrossRail has steadfastly refused to have astaged opening - it'll have to eventually, simply to generate new revenue for TfL.

dg writes: Crossrail has always planned a staged opening.

As I understand another issue - the trains work with all four different signalling systems, but sit down on switching from one system to the next one. If anyone knows better, i defer to that knowledge.

Joel | 28.04.19 - 3:59 p.m. | #











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