Elizabeth Line (CrossRail) opened 24th May 2022

A drain on workers could add strain to the delivery of the Elizabeth line’s delayed Bond Street station, according to Jacobs.

Bond Street has been a problem station throughout the Elizabeth line project, and will not open with the rest of the central section next week. At one point it was 18 months behind schedule, but Transport for London has said that the Crossrail team has “clawed back” the deficit and it is expected to open later this year.

However, Jacobs has highlighted an issue with maintaining staff to carry out the remaining works. The engineering firm’s latest project representative report for Crossrail notes that “there remain approximately 540 EOWLs [Element Outstanding Work Lists] to close in order to allow entry into passenger service and cost increases are associated with the revised dates. Challenges remain with the retention of resources, and [Crossrail] is likely to rely on the support of Tier 2 specialists.”

While the Crossrail response to this point says “largely agree”, it refutes some of the details. It says: “At the time of writing, there are only 13 open EOWLs required for Entry into Revenue Service. EOWL quantity for station opening is under evaluation and will likely be reduced via triaging with the Infrastructure Manager. Tier 2 specialist support is not a likely mitigation for resource retention challenges.”

Concerns over TfL maintaining skilled workers has been a constant through the pandemic as job security diminished alongside the operator’s capital funds. With a funding settlement not forthcoming, TfL commissioner Andy Byford reported an “evident brain drain” from the organisation in February this year.

Crossrail has had a particularly rocky road in this regard. Jacobs first reported on the project’s “over-stretched” workforce in January 2021. Shortly after, Crossrail chief executive Mark Wild admitted there was a “big risk” of specialist engineers being poached by HS2.

This was followed by concerns that changes to tax regulation could lead to a lack of assurance workers to complete outstanding work, with Jacobs urging Crossrail bosses to push back its schedule to ease the “intense pressure” on those assurance workers.

The trend was crystallised in April 2021 when a survey by recruitment specialist Search Consultancy found that the large majority of construction and engineering firms have reported serious concerns about a lack of skilled workers.

Meanwhile, to tackle the UK’s skills shortage chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a series of schemes in the spring Budget, including increasing incentives to encourage firms to take on apprentices.

The Department for Transport (DfT) also commissioned the National Skills Academy for Rail in January 2021 to provide data on skills shortages across transport modes.

Skills shortages were identified in infrastructure construction, rail, freight and logistics, and the DfT is now working, in collaboration with industry partners, stakeholders, other government departments and public bodies (including HS2 Ltd), to identify mitigations and ensure it addresses the challenges facing both the transport industry and the wider economy.