Crossrail - Construction updates and progress towards opening (now expected 24 May 2022)

[Nicholas Lewis]

Its not only Crossrail that have shown themselves to be unable to manage and forecast the works with NR also seeing a major escalation in costs (2.3B to 3B) for the surface sections in what should have been a more known environment.

 

[HSTEd]

Its not only Crossrail that have shown themselves to be unable to manage and forecast the works with NR also seeing a major escalation in costs (2.3B to 3B) for the surface sections in what should have been a more known environment.

For railway upgrades that cost escalation is postively amazing!

 

[InOban]

I thought that the specification for the upgrades had been enhanced since the original announcement?

 

[swt_passenger]

I thought that the specification for the upgrades had been enhanced since the original announcement?

There was a significant change to add step free access at many NR stations that weren’t originally getting much done at all. Not sure if specific costs were ever accurately explained though.

 

[kevin_roche]

There has been a new update video from Mark Wild uploaded to YouTube.

Nothing new in that though.

 

[hwl]

For railway upgrades that cost escalation is postively amazing!

As @InOban says the London Assembly /Mayor / TfL added the step free requirement but without any funding attached.

The original NR prices were based on 2010 + expected increases before the contracts were let.
London was seeing 10% pa construction cost inflation before 2016 which shredded those cost assumptions for surface stations.
The cheapest but still way over original budget contractor for the stations was Carillion hence there is also the cost for dealing with Carillion going bust and restarting again with new contractor, delays and further industry inflation in the mean time.

 

[SynthD]

Crossrail had its own governance, which DfT and maybe the Mayor wanted, which is now regretted as the problems were kept quiet from the elected officials.
HS2 is what happens when you try to privatise the risks. Let the public sector take the risks because in the case of it goes well the profits return to the public purse.
Combine those two lessons for CS2, and the later HS stages.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Crossrail had its own governance, which DfT and maybe the Mayor wanted, which is now regretted as the problems were kept quiet from the elected officials.
HS2 is what happens when you try to privatise the risks. Let the public sector take the risks because in the case of it goes well the profits return to the public purse.
Combine those two lessons for CS2, and the later HS stages.

Yes but the DofT / TfL had Jacobs acting as the independent reviewers to provide that oversight at a cost of c£30m which also failed to provide satisfactory early warning of issues albeit even when it did try and surface issues the politicians ineptness failed to get on top of it.
Ultimately though your second point is spot as I suspect the nett costs would have been less had those bodies taken the risk in the first place as they failed to capitalise on the risk premia they had bought to protect the public purse paid and just paid out even more. Then to cap it all they allowed already well paid executives and senior mgrs to retain bonus awarded under false pretences.

 

[camflyer]

Crossrail had its own governance, which DfT and maybe the Mayor wanted, which is now regretted as the problems were kept quiet from the elected officials.
HS2 is what happens when you try to privatise the risks. Let the public sector take the risks because in the case of it goes well the profits return to the public purse.
Combine those two lessons for CS2, and the later HS stages.

I'm not so sure about that. Clearly some political oversight is needed but the danger of politicians getting involved in the day to day construction plans is that of constant scope changes and reviews. Sometimes the contractors just need to be allowed to get on with things

 

[kevin_roche]

There have been several articles that point to issues that happened when the current mayor replaced Daniel Moylan who used to be the mayor's representative on the Crossrail board. Apparently, his replacement did not keep a good watch the Crossrail board. Is this true?

Crossrail: how Europe’s largest transport project stalled

London’s new rail line used private sector expertise but has been mired in cost increases and delays

www.ft.com

Crossrail: how Europe’s largest transport project stalled ...

Politicians meanwhile had taken their eyes off the ball. When Mr Khan became mayor two years ago he dismissed TfL’s representative on the Crossrail board, Daniel Moylan, a Conservative politician who had kept a close eye on costs, and asked all “the difficult questions” according to one individual close to the board.

“Sadiq’s attitude was to give him a call when it’s time to cut the ribbon,” says another source close to the board.

 

[Railwaysceptic]

There have been several articles that point to issues that happened when the current mayor replaced Daniel Moylan who used to be the mayor's representative on the Crossrail board. Apparently, his replacement did not keep a good watch the Crossrail board. Is this true?

Crossrail: how Europe’s largest transport project stalled

London’s new rail line used private sector expertise but has been mired in cost increases and delays

www.ft.com

As I loathe and despise Sadiq Khan, I'd like an informed answer to those questions.

 

[SynthD]

Page two of this TfL pdf, html-ed by Google. http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...-tfl-membership.pdf+&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

Khan kept seven and replaced eight members of the board. There isn't one replacement for Moylan. By this time Moylan was already on other projects like CS2 and Boris Island.

Are people guessing that the problems (eg Bond Street slipping behind schedule) were reported to the board, but only after Khan became mayor? Last I heard it these reports went up to middle management and stopped there.

 

[kevin_roche]

Are people guessing that the problems (eg Bond Street slipping behind schedule) were reported to the board, but only after Khan became mayor? Last I heard it these reports went up to middle management and stopped there.

I'm trying not to guess. I wondered if anyone knew any more than was reported in the FT. Unfortunately, I can't find one of the FT articles I read over a year ago which said that Daniel Moylan had been particularly active in chasing down some issues and keeping the project on track. I don't have a subscription to the FT so maybe it won't tell me everything for that reason.

FYI. I was at school with Daniel Moylan but that was nearly 50 years ago so I don't know him any more. I remember him as being a clever child.

 

[hwl]

I'm trying not to guess. I wondered if anyone knew any more than was reported in the FT. Unfortunately, I can't find one of the FT articles I read over a year ago which said that Daniel Moylan had been particularly active in chasing down some issues and keeping the project on track. I don't have a subscription to the FT so maybe it won't tell me everything for that reason.

FYI. I was at school with Daniel Moylan but that was nearly 50 years ago so I don't know him any more. I remember him as being a clever child.

Bond Street problems began in earnest 2013 well in the BoJo/Moylan supervision era. The problems didn't tend to surface then and got hidden.

Yes but the DofT / TfL had Jacobs acting as the independent reviewers to provide that oversight at a cost of c£30m which also failed to provide satisfactory early warning of issues albeit even when it did try and surface issues the politicians ineptness failed to get on top of it.
Ultimately though your second point is spot as I suspect the nett costs would have been less had those bodies taken the risk in the first place as they failed to capitalise on the risk premia they had bought to protect the public purse paid and just paid out even more. Then to cap it all they allowed already well paid executives and senior mgrs to retain bonus awarded under false pretences.

One of the early Crossrail Ltd actions was to get the Jacobs scope of work reduced so they were under significantly less supervision than DfT had intended from 2011 onwards.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

One of the early Crossrail Ltd actions was to get the Jacobs scope of work reduced so they were under significantly less supervision than DfT had intended from 2011 onwards.

Umm whats the source for this? Were DofT/TfL that naive to agree to this as surely they were funding it anyhow?

 

[hwl]

Umm whats the source for this? Were DofT/TfL that naive to agree to this as surely they were funding it anyhow?

It was agreed as a cost saving measure as part of the value engineering exercise in 2011. Most of the other cost saving measures in 2011 also turned out not to be cost savings when you have to add them back in later at even greater cost (e.g. the footbridge in Silvertown).
From memory it was flagged in one of the longer KMPG report 18+months ago and the report into the value engineering at the time.

I've been keeping a good eye on Crossrail for a very long time and have been through several tens of thousand of pages of CR reports.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

It was agreed as a cost saving measure as part of the value engineering exercise in 2011. Most of the other cost saving measures in 2011 also turned out not to be cost savings when you have to add them back in later at even greater cost (e.g. the footbridge in Silvertown).
From memory it was flagged in one of the longer KMPG report 18+months ago and the report into the value engineering at the time.

I've been keeping a good eye on Crossrail for a very long time and have been through several tens of thousand of pages of CR reports.

OK thanks was doubting it more curiosity that DofT/TfL would be so naive as to water down oversight. Ultimately this is the root of the problem with Crossrail in that politicians are as much to blame hence why nobody has been held to account over the failings. I wouldn't mind so much had people not benefited financially out of it. Maybe the Victorians suffered the same outcome in building out the original network.

 

[Taunton]

One of the early Crossrail Ltd actions was to get the Jacobs scope of work reduced so they were under significantly less supervision than DfT had intended from 2011 onwards.

They still sent in a huge bill, though, didn't they?

 

[Class 170101]

OK thanks was doubting it more curiosity that DofT/TfL would be so naive as to water down oversight.

Not sure DfTor this government likes oversight - all that messing about with non existent boats / ferries ref the Brexit Crisis, it really doesn't surprise me.

 

[hwl]

They still sent in a huge bill, though, didn't they?

They still did a lot of reporting and digging in spite of reduced scope. It would be in a far worse state without them.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

They've clearly spent some of the extra cash on employing expensive consultants from Bechtel as per building magazine to get the stations finished.

Crossrail brings in Bechtel veterans to help get delayed job finished​

Seems odd at this stage of the works that Crossrail still need to hire big hitters in to get the job finished.

 

[moggie]

One would have thought the 'banging heads together' tactic had already been employed by CR! So I wonder what these two former Bechtel stalwarts bring to the table that hasn't already been tried? Two too many cooks?

 

[Horizon22]

Here's the update of the Western stations. Acton Mainline had a lot of barriers around it last time I looked, they've closed off the road outside Ealing again for work to open the new entrance and you can see Southall's new glazing coming along nicely.

 

[Taunton]

Well whoop-de-do for the project team. These are stations Acton Main Line and westward, not on the core but just normal wayside stations. How long have they had to get this work done? Project given the go-ahead in 2010, so 11 years I think. And what a triumph they've actually started putting the basic steelwork up at Hayes & Harlington. In 2021.

 

[Ianno87]

Well whoop-de-do for the project team. These are stations Acton Main Line and westward, not on the core but just normal wayside stations. How long have they had to get this work done? Project given the go-ahead in 2010, so 11 years I think.

Not everything needs to start on Day 1...

 

[Class 170101]

Not everything needs to start on Day 1...

Maybe with this project it did - practical issues I'm sure though.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Well whoop-de-do for the project team. These are stations Acton Main Line and westward, not on the core but just normal wayside stations. How long have they had to get this work done? Project given the go-ahead in 2010, so 11 years I think. And what a triumph they've actually started putting the basic steelwork up at Hayes & Harlington. In 2021.

Its debatable as to whether NR efforts have been worse than Crossrail when you weight for complexity given the delays and cost overruns these worjs have experienced.

 

[itfcfan]

Crossrail | TfL boss sets internal target to get line open this year and for less than revised budget​

“Number one, I want us to improve on that date of the first half of 2022. Although that remains the public position I want to challenge my team to do better. Let’s get it finished and let's get it open. And by the way, open means open, it means all the stations open at the same time.

“The second challenge is that we should achieve that for no more than the additional £825M […] let’s not go to the £1.1bn and let’s get it complete within the £825M or for less.

“And thirdly let’s do better than what the Crossrail board also said for connecting the line end to end from Heathrow and Shenfield which was first half of 2023 – no I think we can do better than that.”

Source: https://www.newcivilengineer.com/la...-and-for-less-than-revised-budget-27-01-2021/

 

[coppercapped]

Well whoop-de-do for the project team. These are stations Acton Main Line and westward, not on the core but just normal wayside stations. How long have they had to get this work done? Project given the go-ahead in 2010, so 11 years I think. And what a triumph they've actually started putting the basic steelwork up at Hayes & Harlington. In 2021.

Project scope changed - originally there was no intention of making the western stations level access - apart from those that already were. Then when it was decided to add lifts and all the necessary gubbins to the stations the financing wasn't sorted out.

Work started on Hayes and Harlington well over three years ago and then the main contractor, Carillion, was declared bankrupt so work stopped. This may have happened at other stations as well but I only know about the Hayes case but anyway this event seriously slowed work until replacements were found. NR's spend rates were also reduced as a result of the Hendy Review so several factors came together.

In any event, as long as the platforms are long enough when the service starts, why is there perceived to be a problem?

 

[Taunton]

There were other rail projects around the country in the hands of Carillion, where its failure was handled with scarcely a murmur. Generally by redoing the contract directly with the subcontractors on the job. Carillion didn't do any self-perform work, they subcontracted out everything. It wasn't an excuse.