Parliament report highlights failures in Crossrail delivery

A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has revealed failures in Crossrail delivery planning.

The Crossrail delivery report explores costs, planning, and where responsibility lies for issues with the project. The report also details conclusions and recommendations, such as questioning the value of future investment and the attainability of deadlines.

The main focus of the report is on rising costs and delays. The Crossrail service was due to start running at the end of last year but delays have extended that deadline by two years, which the PAC says is still unlikely to be achieved.

The report concludes: “The Department should, as a matter of urgency, write to the Committee clearly articulating what it, Transport for London and Crossrail Limited are responsible and accountable for in relation to Crossrail and what the consequences have been for those senior officials in positions of accountability and responsibility for failures on the programme.”

It also recommends the following:

• The Department for Transport should write to the PAC to explain how it is encouraging openness and transparency
• They should consider the main causes of problems and explain how they will improve on them
• They should explain how they saw value to the taxpayer when they agreed to extra funding
• They should write to the PAC to explain how new plans will be more reliable and how extra funding should be allocated
• They should explain how they have changed their relationship with Crossrail Ltd and how they will hold them to account for failures

The PAC says that key warning signs were ignored and Crossrail Ltd and the Department of Transport failed to properly explain risks and how failures have occurred. The line was due to run between London and Reading, a huge undertaking which would have reduced journey times and improved congestion around the capital.

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