staff reporter(wp/es):
Sadiq Khan was today accused of misleading Londoners over the delayed and over-budget
Crossrail scheme.
The Mayor has claimed he knew only two days before a public announcement that the £15.4bn line would not be ready for the Queen to open on December 9.
But a cross-party City Hall committee today said it was “highly likely” Mr Khan had been informed around six weeks earlier about “very likely” delays.
In a highly-critical letter, the London Assembly transport panel told him: “It is arguable that maintaining that you were completely uninformed is misleading.”
Crossrail is now not due to open before Autumn 2019. It has required a £590m bail-out from public funds to cope with spiralling costs.
The 10-year east-west project, also known as the Elizabeth line, has been hit by construction and engineering problems, including delays to stations and an electrical explosion.
Engineers are now struggling to get software on the new trains to understand three different signalling systems used on different sections of the line, including the tunnel between Paddington and Whitechapel.
Problems were first made public at a TfL board meeting in January. Mr Khan, who chairs the TfL board, halted the discussion and moved it into private session.
Subsequent TfL board discussions about Crossrail have mostly been held in private.
Transport minister Jo Johnson announced to Parliament on July 24 that an extra £300m was needed to finish the central tunnel, plus £290m on existing rail tracks between Shenfield and Liverpool Street and Paddington and Heathrow.
TfL made a statement to the London Stock Exchange on the same day. Neither statement mentioned the delay in opening.
This was despite Crossrail executives telling the Crossrail board five days earlier that “they could no longer have confidence in the date of opening for December”, according to evidence given to the assembly.
Mr Khan received a face-to-face update from Crossrail on “increasing pressures” on July 26, six weeks before the public announcement.
Industry insiders told the Standard there were repeated indications that the project was running behind schedule.
Crossrail announced its revised opening schedule on August 31. When Mr Khan was called before the assembly on September 6, he said he had only been told on August 29 about the inability to open in December.
Today’s letter accuses Mr Khan, TfL and the Government of deliberately hiding the extent of the problems from the public.
It questions whether Crossrail waited until it received the £590m bailout before revealing that the opening date would be missed.
It said there had been a “number of worrying decisions being made by all involved in the project, and a continuing lack of openness”.
This had turned public statements to Parliament and the TfL board “into little more than theatrical performances”.
The letter said: “We can never again have an absurd situation where the [TfL] board publicly discusses a Crossrail paper suggesting the project is on track, as it did on July 25, before turning off the cameras for the ‘real’ discussion where bad news is shared.”
It said that if Mr Khan and Ministers had been uninformed, this can only have been done to allow them to dodge awkward questions.
“This is completely inappropriate and damages the reputations of all involved,” the letter said.
It said this could harm the chances of delivering Crossrail 2, the £30bn proposed north-south line linking Surrey and Hertfordshire.
Officials are now locked in talks over who should pay for the overrun. One source suggested the additional bill could reach £1 billion. TfL will lose £20m in Crossrail fares this year.
Transport committee chairwoman Caroline Pidgeon said: “The evidence we have received shows it is highly likely that the Mayor was informed on or soon after July 19 that there was very likely to be a delay. “It may have been justified to wait for clearer information before a public announcement. However, it is arguable that maintaining that he was completely uninformed is misleading.”
A spokeswoman for Mr Khan said: “The Mayor did not hide his anger and disappointment when Crossrail announced that the central section of the project wouldn’t be opening until Autumn next year - anger and frustration made worse by the length of the delay and how late in the project it was announced.
“The Mayor has expressed his frustrations directly to the leadership of Crossrail – both privately and during meetings in public.
“The Mayor has now asked Crossrail and TfL to look into whether the joint sponsors [TfL and DfT] should have been made aware of the revised schedule at an earlier date, and whether the right scrutiny and oversight is in place as the project moves to its final phase.”
A Crossrail spokesman said: “Crossrail has been reporting cost and schedule pressures to [the DfT and TfL]. At the Crossrail board on July 19 a schedule risk was flagged and the executive were tasked to report back and present a formal recommendation to a special meeting of the board in August.
“At the Crossrail board meeting on August 29 it was confirmed that it was now no longer possible to meet the December 2018 opening date. This was communicated to sponsors on August 30 and announced at the earliest opportunity on August 31.”
The Department for Transport declined to comment.
