Crossrail could be delayed again as rescue package in region of £2billion is agreed

Crossrail could cost an extra £2billion to complete and may be delayed further, TfL announced today.

Europe’s biggest infrastructure project, which would see the Elizabeth line extended to Abbey Wood, was meant to open this month.

But London Mayor Sadiq Khan delayed this until Autumn next year and now Crossrail’s new chief executive  Mark Wild confirmed that that date may be missed as well.

An extra £2billion could be pumped into the project after a finance package was agreed today by Mayor of London, the GLA and the Department for Transport.

Mayor Khan said: “When Crossrail is complete it will truly transform travel across the capital, with new state-of-the-art trains adding 10 per cent to central London’s rail capacity and boosting the economy by billions of pounds.

“I haven’t hidden my anger and frustration about the Crossrail project being delayed. This has a knock-on consequence of significant additional cost to the project. It has been increasingly clear that the previous Crossrail Ltd leadership painted a far too optimistic picture of the project’s status.”

A review into Crossrail Ltd’s s financing and governance arrangements were comissioned by the mayor.

These are being undertaken by KPMG and are nearing completion.

So far the review  indicated that the likely cost of the the delay to the project announced in August could between £1.6bn and £2bn.

That includes the £300m already contributed by DfT and TfL in July 2018, leaving an estimated £1.3bn to £1.7bn to complete the project.