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Crossrail opening delayed (opening date not yet known)

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gavin

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Crossrail delayed until Autumn 2019

London’s £15bn Crossrail project is to open nine months after its scheduled launch to allow more time for testing.

Europe's biggest infrastructure project will help ease London's chronic congestion by connecting major landmarks such as Heathrow Airport and the Canary Wharf business district.

The route, to be known as the Elizabeth line, had been due to open in December, but will now be launched in autumn 2019 "to ensure a safe and reliable railway", transport officials said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-45367990
 
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plcd1

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The opening of the Crossrail core has been delayed to Autumn 2019. No word yet what that means for subsequent phased openings but this is a serious but not unexpected delay.
 

quantinghome

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Breaking News: Crossrail opening delayed until autumn next year

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...rail-opening-postponed-until-autumn-next-year
The opening of the £15bn Crossrail line across London will be delayed by up to a year, it has been announced, after months of rumours that the engineering scheme was facing increasing difficulties.

The train line, which has been decades in the planning and will link west and east London with faster, high-capacity services, was due to open in December. But Crossrail executives admitted it would not be ready for its planned official opening as the Elizabeth line by the Queen, after a series of problems and delays.

It said the central section of the line, travelling under the capital from Paddington to Abbey Wood, would now not open until autumn 2019 to complete building work and allow for extensive testing....
 
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hwl

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Paddington - Abbey Wood delayed till autumn '19 with LST -Shenfield to operate as currently (was meant to change in May '19) and they hope to have 345s to Heathrow (was planned for last May) by then.

This screws up the LST high level platform works planned for next June-July so they can take 9 car.
 

theking

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No surprise I hear they have trainee drivers sitting at home doing nothing due to lack of di's like gtr did.
 

hwl

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Crossrail Press Release:
31 August 2018
PRESS RELEASE
Elizabeth line services through central London to start in 2019
  • Central section between Paddington and Abbey Wood will open in autumn 2019
  • Further time required to ensure a safe and reliable railway for customers from day one of passenger service
The Elizabeth line, which will redefine transport in London with quicker, easier and more accessible journeys, will open through central London in autumn 2019, Crossrail Limited announced today. The revised schedule is needed to complete the final infrastructure and extensive testing required to ensure the Elizabeth line opens as a safe and reliable railway.

The hugely complex ten-year project, delivered by Crossrail Limited, brings together multiple infrastructure contracts, new trains and three different signalling systems. The Elizabeth line will add 10 per cent to central London’s rail capacity, and the project will boost the economy by an estimated £42bn.
Crossrail Limited has been working hard to maintain the programme and sufficient testing time is required to introduce the next phase of the railway – the central section between Paddington and Abbey Wood – in a way that can be guaranteed to be safe and reliable.

The original programme for testing has been compressed by more time being needed by contractors to complete fit-out activity in the central tunnels and the development of railway systems software. Testing has started but further time is required to complete the full range of integrated tests.

The focus remains on opening the full Elizabeth line, from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, as soon after the central tunnels open as possible.

Simon Wright, Crossrail Chief Executive said: “The Elizabeth line is one of the most complex and challenging infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the UK and is now in its final stages. We have made huge progress with the delivery of this incredible project but we need further time to complete the testing of the new railway. We are working around the clock with our supply chain and Transport for London to complete and commission the Elizabeth line.”
The new Elizabeth line trains are already operating between Shenfield and Liverpool Street (mainline station) and between Paddington (mainline station) and Hayes & Harlington, in readiness for the full opening. The trains are also being tested in the Heathrow tunnels. Construction activity is drawing to a close including the completion of the remaining architectural fit-out in the new central section stations.

When the central section of the Elizabeth line opens in autumn 2019, the railway will initially operate as three separate services as planned:

  • Paddington (Elizabeth line station) to Abbey Wood via central London
  • Paddington (mainline station) to Heathrow (Terminals 2, 3 and 4)
  • Liverpool Street (mainline station) to Shenfield
The new railway, jointly sponsored by the Department for Transport and Transport for London with support from London’s business community, will connect stations such as Paddington to Canary Wharf in only 17 minutes, transforming how Londoners and visitors move across the capital.

The Elizabeth line will bring an extra 1.5 million people to within 45 minutes of central London and more than 200 million passengers are expected to use it every year.
 
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bramling

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Not really surprising. Apart from persistent rumours, the stations look nowhere near ready, the trains are nowhere near as bedded in as they should be this close to December, and testing has barely started.

Shades of the JLE all over again...

However, to be fair, it’s a massive project and a few months delay in the grand scheme of things isn’t the end of the world.
 

jon0844

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Guess it's now the turn of TfL to get the media attention. Must be good news for GTR, especially on a week where GTR is announcing more trains from the original May timetable being restored in the coming weeks.
 

ijmad

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I think everyone was expected a few months of delay but 9+ months is pretty surprising, especially given it's also pushing back the Shenfield and Reading branch services even further. Is there any chance they're underpromising deliberately and might actually beat their revised goal and open in June or something?
 
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I think everyone was expected a few months of delay but 9+ months is pretty surprising, especially given it's also pushing back the Shenfield and Reading branch services even further. Is there any chance they're underpromising deliberately and might actually beat their revised goal and open in June or something?

I wonder if they're saying autumn but really are planning for the May 2019 timetable change
 

samuelmorris

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Not remotely surprising, just disappointing they didn't give any public impression things were behind, though we could visibly see that was the case...
 

ijmad

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I wonder if they're saying autumn but really are planning for the May 2019 timetable change

First rule of Project Management, if you miss your original delivery date, it's better to vastly pad the remaining time and surprise people, rather than set an aggressive revised date and miss it a second time.
 
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Not remotely surprising, just disappointing they didn't give any public impression things were behind, though we could visibly see that was the case...

None of the core stations look remotely ready on the surface - that's not work you can do in 3 months!
 

hwl

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I wonder if they're saying autumn but really are planning for the May 2019 timetable change
Just Abbey Wood - Paddington is new for Autumn 2019 it doesn't rely on any NR TT changes.

The May '19 Shenfield- Paddington has got delayed and this does have NR timetable impacts and means the defeerrment of the LST high level platform works from June -July '19 to after whenever the Shenfield trains go through the core (so December 2019 at the earliest). Just as well the 315 lease was extended. Delaying the GWR to CR transfers from Dec '19 till May '19 at the earliest also leaves plenty of room to sort out the issues more sensibly there (769s, 387 for HEx, Heathrow tunnel signalling and all the station works)
 

LeeLivery

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Journalists are claiming TfL and the DfT only found out yesterday that it would be late.

I find that hard to believe. Well, not that Grayling found out yesterday but TfL. If they hadn't planned for this they're more stupid than they look. It's been expected by everyone.

None of the core stations look remotely ready on the surface - that's not work you can do in 3 months!

Indeed, I was at Whitechapel the other week. It's at least a year off.
 

Mikey C

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Not remotely surprising, just disappointing they didn't give any public impression things were behind, though we could visibly see that was the case...

It was the same with the new Spurs stadium, everyone could see it was well behind schedule, but the club only admitted it at a pretty late date
 

Joe Paxton

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Journalists are claiming TfL and the DfT only found out yesterday that it would be late.

I find that hard to believe. Well, not that Grayling found out yesterday but TfL. If they hadn't planned for this they're more stupid than they look. It's been expected by everyone.

I imagine that is a gross simplification. Rather, perhaps it was only yesterday that Crossrail Ltd officially informed TfL and the DfT that the central core wouldn't be ready for December - but TfL and the DfT would have been increasingly well aware that things were not on course. Apart from anything else, various TfL people are deeply integrated into the Crossrail project. And Crossrail Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of TfL.

I smell the scent of DfT / Grayling blame avoidance!
 
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Ultimately it's probably for the best. Somewhat miffed I have to wait a few extra months, but given the scope and scale of the project it's hardly a devastating delay.

Is there any indication of the factors that ended up pushing this decision? I get the impression from the PR that it's mostly down to station fit-out running behind schedule, as well as issues with signalling.
 

pdeaves

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First rule of Project Management, if you miss your original delivery date, it's better to vastly pad the remaining time and surprise people, rather than set an aggressive revised date and miss it a second time.
Actually, I would put that as a second rule, the first being that you don't wait until just three months before a major launch to assess the facts and decide it's not sensible!
 

LeeLivery

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I imagine that is a gross simplification. Rather, perhaps it was only yesterday that Crossrail Ltd officially informed TfL and the DfT that the central core wouldn't be ready for December - but TfL and the DfT would have been increasingly well aware that things were not on course. Apart from anything else, various TfL people are deeply integrated into the Crossrail project. And Crossrail Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of TfL.

I smell the scent of DfT / Grayling blame avoidance!

Indeed "I'm not an expert in rail matters." :lol:
 

Searle

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me, finding out about this news
 

ijmad

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Geoff Marshall has put up a rather speedy vlog which has some Q&A in it around his previous vid (and some more discussion of the service pattern), but also mentions the delay. Speedy recording... unless he had confirmed rumours from insider sources. He says 'Summer 2019' several times in the video whereas the actual press release says Autumn.

 
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Cletus

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It was the same with the new Spurs stadium, everyone could see it was well behind schedule, but the club only admitted it at a pretty late date

I love this (underlined) part of this Londonist post
https://londonist.com/london/transp...l-delay?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

There may not be an obvious link, but Crossrail and the new Spurs Stadium are both massive London construction projects entering their final stages (and deferring on their launch dates) at a similar time. Both require many builders, electricians and other skilled labourers, and it has been suggested that there simply aren't enough of them in London to go round, hence the delay in both. In mid-August, we met a builder in a pub who'd been brought down from Middlesbrough to work on Spurs, because of a shortage in London. (The fact that he'd been in the pub since lunch time on a Friday *may* be another reason Spurs aren't back in Tottenham yet...).
 

Requeststop

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900 Million over budget I hear and delayed a year. More money being thrown at and wasted in London and the South East. Are there no penalty clauses in the contracts for being over budget and delays to finishing the projects? I bet there are no resignations over this further debacle. Dreadful.
 
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900 Million over budget I hear and delayed a year.

Neither of those are true.

More money being thrown at and wasted in London and the South East.

There is a good business case for the project, and it would be difficult to realistically call that money 'wasted' in any sense.

Are there no penalty clauses in the contracts for being over budget and delays to finishing the projects?

There are obviously a huge number of contracts in place and many of those will have conditions tied to on-time completion.

I bet there are no resignations over this further debacle.

Good. There should be no resignations over this.

Dreadful.

You are wildly overstating this.
 

DarloRich

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Journalists are claiming TfL and the DfT only found out yesterday that it would be late.

I find that hard to believe. Well, not that Grayling found out yesterday but TfL. If they hadn't planned for this they're more stupid than they look. It's been expected by everyone.

Told (Officially) and known ( unofficially) are two different things - especially where government types are concerned! ;)
 

thejuggler

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I suspect 'only told yesterday' was the detail on the length of the delay, not the fact there was a delay as these will be reported monthly.

In the end the system will be there for decades, so apart from cost and inconvenience the opening date isn't time critical.
 
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