Crossrail opening delayed (opening date not yet known)

[samuelmorris]

Well, she is the longest reigning Monarch ever for over 65 years...

Naming four things after her as you've identified is hardly decadence (over 15 years per thing)

and the bridge at the M25 dartford crossing! Personally speaking Crossrail 1 and Crossrail 2 etc. would have been fine in my opinion, but then I supoose if you abbreviate to XR1 then that gets a bit awkward when the numbers start increasing :P

I still think the London Overground routes should receive a numerical system to stop it being so confusing but that's an argument for another thread.

 

[ijmad]

How much delay repay can I get for a 438000 minute delay?

 

[Esker-pades]

How much delay repay can I get for a 438000 minute delay?

Full refund of your ticket.

 

[ijmad]

Full refund of your ticket.

I'm legitimately pondering buying a couple of Abbey Wood to Woolwich tickets just because they'll be a curio in a few years once it's all open.

 

[Esker-pades]

I'm legitimately pondering buying a couple of Abbey Wood to Woolwich tickets just because they'll be a curio in a few years once it's all open.

I don't think you can buy tickets to any Crossrail only station. If you buy an Abbey Wood to Woolwich ticket now, it would be to either Woolwich Arsenal or Dockyard.

 

[samuelmorris]

Since Crossrail isn't the sort of railway to use advance tickets I wouldn't expect you could buy any tickets that would give any indication they use the route before opening day.

 

[Esker-pades]

Since Crossrail isn't the sort of railway to use advance tickets I wouldn't expect you could buy any tickets that would give any indication they use the route before opening day.

Well exactly. Nobody could actually claim compensation for the lack of Crossrail services. This whole conversation is mad.

 

[samuelmorris]

but clearly tongue-in-cheek. I believe ijmad's post was most likely lacking an emoticon to convey its nature

 

[sprunt]

Is there anywhere outside London where the lines on a metro system have names rather than numbers/letters? New York is kind of half-and-half with the infrastructure having names and the services having numbers, but I can't think of anywhere purely with names like London.

 

[Meerkat]

Surely names are easier to remember? Even better when they are descriptive like Circle or Bakerloo.....
And they have colours too....
It was a long time ago but remember getting confused on the Paris Metro as they just listed end points, none of which i had ever heard of let alone knew where they were.

 

[ijmad]

but clearly tongue-in-cheek. I believe ijmad's post was most likely lacking an emoticon to convey its nature

Indeed, I wasn't being in any way serious. Sorry if that wasn't crystal clear!

 

[mrmartin]

Wow. Looks like it is worse than thought:

Crossrail set for further £1bn rescue as problems mount
https://www.ft.com/content/a4e79458-fbbe-11e8-ac00-57a2a826423e

Ministers are poised to announce a fresh bailout for Crossrail as early as Monday as fears grow that the start date for the flagship London project will be pushed back even further. Officials from the Department for Transport and Transport for London, who have been locked in emergency talks for months, were holding further negotiations on Sunday ahead of an imminent public announcement.

People close to the project believe the latest rescue plan — the third this year — will involve around £1bn of new funding. “Work is continuing between the government, mayor and TfL on finalising a financing package,” said a TFL spokesperson. Former Labour MP Nick Raynsford is also expected to be appointed as Crossrail’s deputy chairman. Later this week Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, is expected to set out various cuts to projects in the city to help fill the financial black hole left by Crossrail’s woes.

The capital should have been celebrating the opening of the east-west London railway, the biggest construction project in Europe, this week. But in August, Crossrail announced it would not begin operation until autumn 2019 at the earliest. Even that now seems “wildly optimistic”, one source close to the project said, given the problems with signals, trains and stations. leading to “growing panic” among executives at TfL. A number of people close to the project now saying it may not be ready until late 2020.

Late 2020 now... :/

 

[samuelmorris]

Yeah given the insider murmurs of 'it's 18 months behind schedule, not 9 as suggested' 2021 for for the 'through services' seems perfectly reasonable to expect.

 

[Busaholic]

Surely everything else pales into insignificance beside the very evident problems with the signalling system(s) and interaction with the new trains? There is scant evidence from all I've read/heard that this is any nearer resolving. I'm afraid the old tradition of only naming projects after dead people may well apply in this case too!

 

[Hadders]

Sounds like the Jubilee Line Extension all over again...

 

[mrmartin]

This is going to be a huge problem for Canary wharf (amongst others). The Jubilee Line is massively overcrowded in the evening peak, along with all DLR out and there is *so much* construction going on there right now with thousands upon thousands of flats and offices going up.

If it gets really seriously delayed again it's going to cause a massive issue to the viability of the area

 

[Megafuss]

Is there anywhere outside London where the lines on a metro system have names rather than numbers/letters? New York is kind of half-and-half with the infrastructure having names and the services having numbers, but I can't think of anywhere purely with names like London.

Tyne and Wear Metro has the Yellow and Green lines. They used have a Red and Blue lines too.

 

[ijmad]

Is there anywhere outside London where the lines on a metro system have names rather than numbers/letters? New York is kind of half-and-half with the infrastructure having names and the services having numbers, but I can't think of anywhere purely with names like London.

The Los Angeles metro has mostly colour names but also the 'Expo' line.

 

[deltic]

This is going to be a huge problem for Canary wharf (amongst others). The Jubilee Line is massively overcrowded in the evening peak, along with all DLR out and there is *so much* construction going on there right now with thousands upon thousands of flats and offices going up.

If it gets really seriously delayed again it's going to cause a massive issue to the viability of the area

At least they get compensated for the delay - looks like it will be like JLE where they got most if not all of their contributions back due to the delay in opening

 

[Busaholic]

Is there anywhere outside London where the lines on a metro system have names rather than numbers/letters? New York is kind of half-and-half with the infrastructure having names and the services having numbers, but I can't think of anywhere purely with names like London.

Dublin, though you can argue whether it's a metro.

 

[LeeLivery]

Wasn't £1bn taken out of the Crossrail budget by Osborne back in 2010? Maybe the efficiency savings didn't work.

 

[radamfi]

Is there anywhere outside London where the lines on a metro system have names rather than numbers/letters? New York is kind of half-and-half with the infrastructure having names and the services having numbers, but I can't think of anywhere purely with names like London.

The Rotterdam metro previously used the names Erasmuslijn and Calandlijn but have since renamed them A to E.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Is there anywhere outside London where the lines on a metro system have names rather than numbers/letters? New York is kind of half-and-half with the infrastructure having names and the services having numbers, but I can't think of anywhere purely with names like London.

Ever heard of 'A streetcar named Desire'?

 

[LeeLivery]

Philadelphia has the Broad Street Line and the Market-Frankford Line.

 

[sprunt]

Ever heard of 'A streetcar named Desire'?

Heard of it, but never seen either play or film. Thanks for the answers those who did - I should have thought of the places with colour names.

 

[plcd1]

Wasn't £1bn taken out of the Crossrail budget by Osborne back in 2010? Maybe the efficiency savings didn't work.

It was taken out *but* several things to take into account. There was some descoping of the project to fit the budget. Therefore what's being built is less than the original budget. Crossrail has eaten through all of the project risk and contingency funding (£400m). We are now in a situation where the project is consuming money at an enormous rate of at least £25m a week for not a lot of demonstrable physical progress. The FT article quoted an extra £1bn on top of £590m and a £350m loan to the GLA (passed through to TfL) already paid out. This is an enormous amount of money (nearly £2bn) and even if you are generous and allow £1bn for equivalence to the old budget it's still a lot of extra money. If TfL have to finance all of this overspend then the TfL budget is screwed for years. It explains why the new Business Plan, due at a TfL cttee meeting this coming week, has not been published in the meeting papers.

The ongoing uncertainty about the train/signalling interface is extremely concerning as there's little being said that would inspire confidence that things are heading in the right direction. The stations will eventually come right (assuming stn systems are able to talk to each other!) but trains and signalling is another thing altogether.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Wasn't £1bn taken out of the Crossrail budget by Osborne back in 2010? Maybe the efficiency savings didn't work.

Discussed in this very thread just 3 days ago. Look at posts #242-246. But in summary, no, the efficiency savings probably did work (in the sense of, saving money. You can argue about whether Crossrail is as good with the things that were cut in the savings). As far as we can tell, the things currently going wrong are different things from the stuff that was changed in the efficiency savings.

 

[Mainline421]

Since Crossrail isn't the sort of railway to use advance tickets I wouldn't expect you could buy any tickets that would give any indication they use the route before opening day.

Actually you can. https://twitter.com/geofftech/status/1066356400614514688

 

[glbotu]

Is there anywhere outside London where the lines on a metro system have names rather than numbers/letters? New York is kind of half-and-half with the infrastructure having names and the services having numbers, but I can't think of anywhere purely with names like London.

Melbourne has named lines for the trains although they're just named after the destinations but they're still line names (the Frankston line to Carrum etc. )

 

[jellybaby]

It didn't look any easier to me given the work involved in draining the dock, but I imagine the private component of the building may have helped things along a little.

Canary Wharf Contractors are far from perfect. They have been replacing the stairs and lifts of the Poplar Link. The work was planned to finish by the end of 2017 and yet we are still using the temporary stairs/lifts.