By Paul Coleman
It’s not a delay if you stop to
sharpen the scythe.
Delay beats error and always trumps never.
However, such clichés don’t easily hitch to Crossrail,
London’s much-vaunted east-west railway.
Red-faces
It’s autumn 2018 and Crossrail should now be all set for a full operation
of new Elizabeth Line train services, scything through London's congested and overcrowded rush-hour commutes.
The tracks are laid in new tunnels under central London.
New trains are tested and ready and waiting to run along the Elizabeth Line (above).
But in late August the government and Transport for London
announce Crossrail will be delayed by ‘nearly a year’ due to the need for further technical tests following a raft of problems.
The delay and an attached cost over-run red-faces London’s
political establishment, chiefly because the government and TfL are allocating
£15.4 billion of taxpayers’ hard-earned money to Crossrail, up from the project's original £14.8bn.
Pricing out
Hence, the pressure mounts on Crossrail chief executive Simon Wright, TfL and the government to
deliver a fully operative Elizabeth Line for London as soon as possible.
It’s bad news to keep
a nonagenarian monarch waiting for a train, let alone millions of Londoners.
Yet Crossrail has already affected millions of Londoners even before a single train service has run - by raising house values for private homeowners near its suburban stations but also pricing out potential homebuyers.
For an analysis of the deeper impact of
Crossrail on London's political economy, see Crossrail: All That Glitters..
© London Intelligence, September 2018.
London Intelligence ®️ is a registered trademark of London Intelligence Limited.
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