Crossrail

Christian Wolmar’s interview with the current chief executive of Crossrail has added little to what we already know about the reasons underlying the massively delayed and over-budget Crossrail project ( RAIL 916).

At its heart was a huge failure of culture within the project management team, which can only be attributed to the top management.

I suspect that managers felt unable to communicate upwards unpalatable truths, and that top management failed to get out of their ‘ivory tower’ to examine the reality on the ground.

How else could we (the passengers and taxpayers) and Transport for London be told only a few months before the expected opening date that the project was on-programme. It is now at least three years late.

I simply do not buy the excuse that this was a uniquely complex project. Complex it certainly is, and it might be argued that public sector projects in this country do tend to ‘gold plate’ the product, but while ambition is good, unreality is not.

I also appreciate that the promoters of large schemes are tempted to over-state the benefits and underplay the delivery timescale and cost. Think HS2 or Heathrow. However, there are enough examples around the world of similar debacles to have alerted us to the pitfalls.

Transport for London should also accept some of the blame. As a young engineer, I was told by the founder of the large, multidisciplinary consultancy for whom I worked that the first task of a project manager was to ‘educate’ his client.

What he really meant was that client organisations are set up to operate the finished scheme, and often have few skills in defining and overseeing the construction and commissioning process.

We must try yet again to learn the hard lessons, and not leave passengers ‘standing on the platform waiting for the first train to finally arrive’. We must not, as Christian hopes, soon forget these “trials and tribulations”.