CROSSFAIL

Flagship rail project delayed by nearly a YEAR as cost soars

MINISTERS and rail bosses were accused of overseeing ‘a national embarrassment’ yesterday as a nine-month delay was announced in the £15billion Crossrail project.

Furious business chiefs said the hold-up in Europe’s biggest infrastructure project was ‘completely unacceptable’ and questioned why it was only announced three months before trains were due to run.

The ten-year project is almost £600million over budget and sources said it was ‘inevitable’ that the delay would mean further costs for the taxpayer.

Once operational, the 60-mile Elizabeth Line aims to slash journey times between West and East London and ease commuter congestion.

Trains were due to start running between Paddington and Abbey Wood in early December. But Crossrail, which has already been hit by problems installing power supply and signals in tunnels, said it needed ‘further time’ for safety testing and the route would not open until autumn next year.

The announcement angered business leaders and retailers who had been assured the project was ‘on time and on budget’.

Crossrail’s former chief executive Andrew Wolstenholme was awarded £481,460 in ‘ performance-related pay’ during the 2016-17 financial year, taking his salary and benefits to £946,396. he stepped down earlier this year. Nonexecutive chairman Sir Terry Morgan was recently appointed to oversee the £56billion hS2 rail project linking London with Birmingham and Manchester.

Former transport secretary Lord Adonis accused Crossrail of ‘trying to smuggle out a really serious failure’ while MPs were on holiday and called for leaders to be held to account.

he said: ‘Andrew Wolstenholme was paid nearly £1million a year before he left a project which is seriously delayed and over budget.’

It is understood that Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was only told about the delay on Thursday.

Labour MP Daniel Zeichner, a member of the transport select committee, told the BBC: ‘It is really not a good advertisement for Britain.’ Mike Cherry, of the Federation of Small Businesses, dubbed it a ‘national embarrassment’.

Businesses have contributed more than £5billion to the £15.4billion Crossrail budget, via business rates and a levy introduced by the Mayor of London.

Crossrail Limited is owned by Transport for London (TfL), which provided £1.9billion funding with the Government providing a further £4.9billion.

TfL had expected to receive £146million in fare revenue from the new Elizabeth Line in the 2018/19 financial year.

‘A national embarrassment’

THERE is little doubt high energy drinks are contributing to the obesity epidemic. But in the week when ministers proposed banning their sale to under-18s, new figures point to an arguably more important factor: the decline of school sports.

Class time dedicated to PE is plummeting, while barely half of primary pupils are taking part in an annual sports day.

Glued to their screens at home and allowed to avoid vigorous, competitive sports at school, it’s no wonder so many children are overweight. So if they want to fight obesity, shouldn’t ministers focus on getting our young people moving again? HOW utterly predictable. Just like every other major infrastructure project, Crossrail is running late and hugely over budget. Due to open last year, the timetable has slipped from this December until next autumn (a suspiciously vague target). So the Mail asks: does anyone now take seriously the idea that HS2 – a project of greatly dubious merit – will arrive on time?