London Banter - View Single Post - Croxley Rail Link: London Underground could take over construction of £230m project

[email protected] · December 19th 14, 10:37 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Fri, 19 Dec 2014 08:56:40 +0000, Peter Lawrence
wrote:

In other words, they have not decided what the project is to do nor who
is to run it but have doubled the cost estimate and added 6 months to
the time scale.

It has been clear for many months that LU would be the operator and
that the line would transfer to them upon completion. There is an
agreement that went to the TfL Board that sets out the party's
responsibilities.

I suspect they have had the usual cost escalation once they started
confirming assumptions and looked at future train service patterns.
That's undoubtedly what has triggered the power and track related
changes on the NR tracks into Watford. There is a notorious lack of
asset knowledge in NR so it's no great shock that you get scope creep.
It is possible that there is a wish to run a more frequent service
into WJ and to Amersham. That may also have affected the power design
assumptions.

Wouldn't an element of the power supply costs be wanted for the plan to
extend the Bakerloo to Watford Junction once more? What's happening with
that plan, by the way?

I also suspect that HCC have decided they are not best placed, given
impending spending cuts, to manage a rail project effectively. LU do
have more experience and making them responsible for construction
should make bringing the line into service a rather smoother process.

Very true.

--
Colin Rosenstiel