Crossrail Canary Wharf
MPs have declared that they are “not convinced” that Crossrail will be ready in 2020, nor that the £2.8bn of additional funding provided to the delayed project will be enough.
A highly critical report from the Public Accounts Committee looking into delays and budget overruns on the new east-west railway service through central London, which was originally scheduled to launch in 2018, demanded that the government explain who was responsible for the problems.
It warned that value for money of the programme was at risk from further delays and cost increases and in the conclusions of its report, the Committee demanded that the Department for Transport (DfT) write to it immediately after reaching agreement with Crossrail to outline how it has assured itself that the revised schedule and cost are “robust”.
It criticised the DfT and Crossrail Limited for being unable to fully explain how the programme had been “allowed to unravel” and found that DfT, Transport for London and Crossrail’s “fixation” on a December 2018 delivery deadline “led to warning signs that the programme was in trouble being missed or ignored”.
It said there was an “overriding culture of over-optimism” when the programme began to slip in 2016 and failings identified then were not addressed as they should have been.
“The Pudding Mill Lane explosion in late 2017 contributed to delays, but many elements of the programme, including the stations and signalling systems, were already a long way behind schedule. Even if the explosion had not happened, the programme would still have failed to deliver on time,” the MPs concluded.
The Committee called on the DfT to write to it every six months to explain steps it was taking to encourage a culture of openness and transparency internally and across its delivery bodies.
“Unacceptable”
Meanwhile, branding the failure of the DfT and Crossrail to identify the root causes of the programme unravelling as “unacceptable”, the Committee demanded that the department write to it by June 2019 setting out how it has learned lessons and what impact this has had on its approach.
And the Committee warned: “We are becoming increasingly alarmed at the continual shortcomings our work has highlighted in the Department’s project management and oversight of the railways and we will continue to look closely at progress within this programme.”
Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier said: “It is clear that the delivery deadline of December 2018 had been unrealistic for some time. But the Department for Transport, Transport for London and Crossrail Limited continued to put a positive face on the programme long after mounting evidence should have prompted changes.
“Wishful thinking is no basis for spending public money and there remain serious risks to delivering this programme, with a revised schedule and costings for completing the work still to be agreed. Some £2.8 billion of extra funding has been provided for Crossrail but even that may not be enough.
“It is unacceptable that Parliament and the public still do not know the root causes of the failures that beset this project. Nor will we accept the Department and Crossrail Limited’s description of these serious problems as ‘systems failures’.
“Accountability in the use of public money is of fundamental importance. The Department should write to us urgently to explain what it, Transport for London and Crossrail Limited are responsible and accountable for on this programme, and set out clearly what consequences there have been for well-rewarded officials whose costly failures are paid for by taxpayers.”
