Research and Reports

Completing Crossrail

The Public Accounts Committee has again attacked Crossrail Ltd over delays in opening the new railway. The Department for Transport also came in for strong criticism, with Crossrail’s £2.8 billion overspend and late running branded “par for the course for major rail projects”. Despite Crossrail Ltd targeting a revised opening date of October 2020-March 2021, the PAC report concludes that it is uncertain when the whole railway will open, and points out that Transport for London’s fare revenue will not increase significantly until the full railway opens. PAC also describes it as “staggering” how the company continued to believe as late as July 2018 that the central section would open in December 2018, and calls it “unacceptable that the DfT devolved so much accountability for taxpayers’ money on the programme”.