Crossrail row
Former chairman accuses Transport for London of censoring information provided to board members over project’s delays.
FORMER Crossrail Chairman Sir Terry Morgan said on January 9 that he verbally informed London Mayor Sadiq Khan of delays to the £16 billion project on July 26 last year.
An official announcement regarding delays to the project was made on August 29 ( RAIL 861), with Khan claiming that he had been unaware of the impending problems.
Speaking at a London Assembly Transport Committee on December 21 last year, Khan claimed Morgan “misremembered” events last July and August regarding who knew what about the Crossrail delays… and when.
But on January 9, Morgan responded to those comments, telling the assembly: “I do not suffer from memory loss.”
Morgan also accused Transport for London (TfL) of censoring information he provided to board members. He told the committee that he was given a briefing by an unidentified TfL employee shortly before a TfL board meeting on July 25 on what he should say, that omitted any reference to there being a delay.
He also claimed that Transport for London had deleted a crucial paragraph in a weekly briefing prepared note for the Mayor on June 19, in which warnings had been made about testing issues, adding: “The Crossrail briefing that went to the Mayor via TfL suggested that these documents had been altered.”
Morgan said he no longer had access to these notes following his resignation last year, but committee chairman Caroline Pidgeon said she would seek to obtain them.
Later in the meeting, TfL denied the claim.
Morgan added: “The programme is something I’m very proud of and nothing will change that. On July 19 the [Crossrail] board concluded that delivery in 2018 was not feasible, and looked at three options based on the probability of what was possible. I used that to brief the Mayor on July 26.
“To my mind there was a very clear indication that there was an understanding that we were not able to deliver Crossrail in 2018.”
Crossrail Phase 3 had been due to open in December last year, with trains running under central London from Abbey Wood to Paddington.
A public announcement regarding delays to the project was made on August 31, with
suggestions it could open in the autumn. This was further delayed in December ( RAIL 868), with suggestions it may not even open throughout this year.
The saga was compounded by Morgan’s resignation on December 5, after he told national media that he expected to be sacked.
Khan and Brown had appeared before the committee on December 21, having been summonsed to explain their version of events.
However, after that meeting, committee chairman Caroline Pidgeon declared: “It is very frustrating that despite a long meeting, with summonsed documents, and the Mayor and the TfL commissioner speaking at length, we’re still far from understanding who knew what and when.
“What we’ve seen today is Sadiq Khan and Mike Brown sticking to their guns. They’re adamant the information they were given through to August 2018 indicated the December 2018 (opening) deadline would be met. Yet Sir Terry Morgan says he informed the Mayor and TfL in July. The Mayor suggested he must have misremembered events.”
Documents released by TfL show that Morgan expressed concern regarding opening on time during a meeting with Khan and TfL on July 26.
Three scenarios were offered, including delaying the opening until August 2019.
Asked on January 9 why there had been more than a month’s delay between his meeting with the Mayor and the project’s sponsors being officially notified on August 30, Morgan said that additional time was needed to notify the supply chain and to establish the full financial impact of the delay.
He added: “We gave notice (to the Mayor) that this was no longer possible on July 26, but we didn’t know what the cost increase would be and had to go away and analyse that number.
“We didn’t issue an adverse notice until the end of August, as the board wasn’t aware of the cost consequence and so wasn’t able to issue that (formal) notice to the sponsors.
“We also had to be careful with the supply chain as we did not want them taking commercial advantage of delay for themselves.
“I don’t understand why we’re talking about who knew what and when. We briefed the Mayor as soon as we knew, but I don’t understand this emphatic statement that (we didn’t) just because it wasn’t written on a piece of paper.
“I emphatically deny that either the chief executive (Mark Wild) or myself made any suggestion that we could deliver this in 2018.”