Elizabeth Line (CrossRail) opened 24th May 2022

An extreme solar storm. The last one occurred in the 19th century and affected telegram systems - causing them to not need power or starting fires. It's predicted that one now would knock out satellites and potentially destroy many power grids especially transformers leading to lack of communication and power for weeks or worse. Sky made a drama called COBRA based on this at the start of the year.

Suffice to say one would definitely lead to further delays on Crossrail opening (in a vague attempt to stay on topic)...

I am getting truly depressed by the endless excuses about a railway which were regularly told would be open for December 2018.

I note the "planned summer possession" was officially due to end today - when the core was off limits to trains and handed over to building teams so that all residual building stuff was meant to have been completed - so that active line testing could then resume. Any bets on that deadline being achieved?

I wonder how long it will be before Mark Wild comes along with another of his cheery videos telling us how everyone has been working their little socks off over the summer and that it will only be a few more years and need just a few more £Billion before the CrossRail core will be ready for passengers. Given the snails pace progress, doubtless CrossRail should rank as the safest and most efficient work-site on the planet just like a Yes-Minister Hospital which was wonderfully efficient without any patients.

No railway has been been built in this country on the scale of the Crossrail project. Then add in lifts, escalators, air conditioning and giant ventilation fans. All this has to be incorporated into the existing control systems in the old parts of the station.

A lot of the materials specified have been superseded by improved or safer items. There has been some replacement of things like cables.

Liverpool Street is so deep that there are pairs of staircases at each end with 20 flights on each. One then has 5 more storeys above it. Can you imagine how difficult it is to replace a cable that runs from platform level to street level amongst a mass of other cables?

The change from Bombardier supplying the trains and signalling to Siemans doing the signalling could not have been foreseen.

When you get to use the Central London section you will only see parts of the project.

I promise you there are a lot of project directors with very loud voices trying to get everything working together.

Did the fireproofing code change?

In at least one case the long term traditional UK cable supplier went out of business. Alternatives had to be identified and tested. 

Fire safety has to be constantly under review but everything should be OK by now on the project.

All tasks are carried out to an agreed (and signed off) standard.

To give you another indication of size a pair of fire doors to a fan room at street level measure approx 10m x 4m. Certainly not off the shelf at Door'R'Us.

This happened with recent railway electrification works and even meant that bridges which had been rebuilt (over the years, as required, eg; because the old bridge was becoming life expired) in a way that met the electrical safety clearance standards suddenly needed rebuilding again, to meet new standards with larger clearances - adding extra cost and delays. This was despite the fact that the safety clearances suddenly deemed 'dangerous' still applied (with a track record of safety) on routes elsewhere in the UK which had been electrified ages ago.

So, yes, there is a precedent.

It looks like you may be about to get the Sargent Major you want... (even if Mr Wild has somehow dodged the bullet)

Construction News Article

As for excuses - 13 miles of Crossrail tunneling in London is not immense or undoable quickly.

From Royal assent to opening the original City & South London (also 13 miles) took 6 years 3 months and 1 week - and that was using technology available in the 1880s!

Meanwhile CrossRail is still years away from opening after Royal assent way back on 22 July 2008, despite all the immense improvements in super fast tunneling equipment.


In the meantime I really hope the National Audit Office takes a deep look at where all the money has gone. Certainly CrossRail project Management approach does not inspire faith in CrossRail 2 ever happening.

Well, they're not really comparable. C&SL railway build was a much smaller tunnel bore, and there were fewer other tunnels to navigate around at the time. There was far less over-land development to be concerned with, and far less H&S and other law to comply with, and far less complex construction requirements like tunnel edge doors etc. The section opened in 1890 was only from Stockwell to King William St at around 3.2 miles, with it being later extended via Bank up to Angel and Down to Clapham by 1901 (18 years after the initial act of Parliament) and to Euston by 1907 (25 years). The Morden extension didn't open until 1926.

This is before you get to the bits that are largely taking time - systems integration between trains, signalling, station systems and the very many computers involved.

While there are undoubtable flaws, one of the biggest will have been to see this as a civil engineering project, rather than a systems project. The tunnelling was completed on time and on schedule, it's the rest of it that's gone a bit pear shaped.

Especially when Bond Street has been causing lots of problems combined with what was described as substandard engineering workmanship from CSJV that’s what I heard

Absolutely, and this is what people keep forgetting: Building tunnels is the easy bit. Comparisons to the CSLR are all well and good, but the signalling (including the trainborne elements) on Crossrail is more complicated than anything currently found on LU, let alone the CSLR.

The specification for Canary Wharf station did not change.

The station was fitted out by Canary Wharf Management and some of the materials they used did not meet the specification.

Remind me who actually did the work on Crossrail?


Was it TfL?  Was it the DfT? Was it Network Rail?


No, they hired private sector contractors like Mott MacDonald, Ove Arup, Atkins, Laing O'Rourke, J Murphy, Carillion (RIP), Costain, McNichols, Skanska, Balfour Beatty, McAlpine, Alstrom, Siemens, Bombardier and others to do the actual work.

And it was private sector contractors who failed to get the jobs finished on time but thanks to generous clauses that have become almost obligatory in the age of outsourcing and privatisation they got away without incurring any serious financial penalties, leaving the taxpayer to pay for their incompetence.

Don't blame the civil servants, they were working on instructions from above.

Private contractors get nice little earners paid for by the taxpayers, politicians get seats on the boards after they leave politics (sometimes while they're still in politics) and civil servants get jobs with contractors (a couple of notable ex-TfL staff at Ove Arup).

Its a nice comfortable arrangement for everyone except the taxpayers who fund it

Or to cover all eventualities: "TBA LINE"