Man, I work in the Oil and Gas Industry, on multi-billion dollar projects with investors from Governments, Financial Institutions, and many Engineering and Construction Companies all putting money into projects from Offshore Oil and Gas production platforms, Pipelines, Treatment plants and Cryogenic Facilities and Oil Refineries, Tankers must be built to ship the products around the world. There are projects like Crossrail that take 7- 10 years from initial design to commissioning each and every part of the project and needless to say, safety, safety, safety is paramount during all parts of the project from construction to completion and operation of all systems.
Investors in large infrastructure programmes such as Crossrail and other public and private projects such a I work in want their money back. They want it on time and in full. The government want to gets it's income from Crossrail. Not in part but in full/ The taxpayer who give their money to the Government whether they like it or not, want their money back in full.
Crossrail and many other recent rail projects have been both late and over budget. Where are the penalty clauses? What recompense are the financial institutions and governments (and therefore the taxpayer) going to get for the delays? I tell you this, in my line of work, any delay means heads will roll. It should well be the case with Crossrail and this latest news.