London Banter - View Single Post - ES: Crossrail at risk of being delayed even further

Guy Gorton[_3_] · July 13th 19, 08:55 AM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london

On Fri, 12 Jul 2019 19:31:23 +0000 (UTC), wrote:

On Fri, 12 Jul 2019 14:48:05 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
Basil Jet wrote:
On 12/07/2019 15:09, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:53:19 on
Fri, 12 Jul 2019, Recliner remarked:

Mayor Sadiq Khan strengthened the scrutiny powers of Jacobs to reveal
problems with Crossrail and increase the project’s transparency.

Is he trying to distance himself from the project's failings, despite
being in charge the last three and a bit years?

It's not clear which politician was in charge: responsibility seems to
have been shared between the DfT and TfL. Either way, and perhaps as a
consequence, neither was providing much supervision or oversight. Khan
now seems to be much more in charge and taking an interest, as it's
clear that TfL will have to suffer the consequence of delays and
overspends.

From the Crossrail website:

"About Crossrail Ltd

Crossrail Limited, established in 2001, is the company that has been
set up to build the new railway that will become known as the
Elizabeth line when it opens through central London.

It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL)..."

No hiding place for the Mayor!!

I'm no fan of Labour or Khan, but it's by no means obvious that the
blame lies with Khan, or Boris, or elsewhere. If the Mayor is being told
everything's fine, how can they know otherwise?

Perhaps when Boris becomes PM he can repent for his sins as mayor and do
everyone a favour by putting a bullet in HS2. A high speed line to complement
the WCML might be a good idea, but not for the 11 figure sums being quoted.
There are far better railway infrastructure projects that could be spent on
IMO.

A reasonable opinion but large areas of Buckinghamshire and
Hertfordshire have already been disfigured by the works, so lets not
make all that inconvenience be for nothing.

Guy Gorton