24.09.18
Crossrail: Khan commissions report into governance, says he ‘cannot be sure’ of completion date
The London mayor has failed to quell concerns about the future of the city’s Crossrail project after he claimed he ‘cannot be sure’ of the completion date.
Speaking to BBC Radio London, Sadiq Khan that a “very speedy” report had been commissioned into the governance of the major project, yet did not confirm the completion date.
Khan said: “I can’t yet give Londoners the confidence that we will finish the project when we’ve been told by Crossrail with the most recent report.
“What we’re doing now is trying to make sure we have the rigour in Crossrail Ltd so we’ve instructed someone to do a report into governance—a very speedy report that will come back a couple of weeks in relation to what the governance is like now, what it needs to be, and we’re doing several pieces of work and at some stage I will come out and say what the revised timetable is, but only when I’ve got the confidence in that revised timetable.”
When news broke in August that the £15.4bn Crossrail project was delayed by nine months, spokesman for Sadiq Khan said that it was “obviously disappointing” that the company advised they need more time than anticipated to complete final infrastructure and carry out testing. However, he did emphasise that the 10-year project is “one of the most complex engineering schemes ever undertaken.”
Earlier this month leaders at a London Assembly meeting claimed that £20m in revenue for TfL could be lost in the delays to opening Crossrail.
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Image credit: Kirsty O'Connor