MPS call for inquiry into £350m Crossrail bailout

MPS HAVE asked the National Audit Office to open an investigation into the Government’s £350m bailout of the delayed Crossrail project.

The £15bn route, known as the Elizabeth Line, creates a critical new rail artery through the heart of the London and was due to open this December. It is now scheduled for launch in autumn 2019.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) wants the officials to investigate why the project has been delayed and the reasons for the mammoth overspend. In a letter to National Audit Office (NAO) comptroller and auditor general Sir Amyas Morse, PAC chairman Meg Hillier also asked for an examination of the “governance of the project including what information was available to officials”.

It is understood officials from the Department for Transport assured members of PAC that Crossrail – which is jointly sponsored by Transport for London (TFL) – was running on time less than a month before the company revealed the nine-month delay.

Speculation was rife among industry insiders many months before the public announcement that Crossrail was running behind schedule.

Ms Hillier wrote yesterday: “I would welcome clarification on when officials were aware that the programme was encountering major difficulties and how the financing deal from the Department [for Transport] was agreed.

Crossrail is Europe’s biggest infrastructure project. When fully operational it will link Reading with Shenfield in Essex.

In July it was announced the project was running around £600m over budget due to additional “cost pressures”. And on Aug 31 Crossrail admitted to the delays, in order to allow more time for testing.

On Oct 26 Mr Johnson announced a £350m taxpayer loan to “ensure that full momentum is maintained”.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also been dragged into the project’s controversy. Questions have been asked about statements he made to the London Assembly. Caroline Pidgeon, the chairman of City Hall’s transport committee, claims there are “discrepancies” between his lack of knowledge about Crossrail delays this summer and earlier correspondence with TFL over “schedule pressures”.

DFT and TFL have already commissioned an independent KPMG review into Crossrail governance and finances.

Crossrail chief executive Simon Wright stepped down a week ago after just eight months in the role.