Wind down was ill-advised

Crossrail Update

Platform lengthening work deferred: unit No 345010 surrounded by Class 315s at Liverpool Street on 8 September 2017. David Andrews

Readers of Modern Railways will know that when a major rail project runs into trouble, custom dictates that an external review should be commissioned. Such reviews generally have two aims: to work out exactly what went wrong once it has become too late to fix it, and to show that the organisations that failed so spectacularly to identify an impending crisis can act decisively by agreeing to spend some of our cash on the consultants that will produce the review.

And so it is with Crossrail. Last year joint sponsors Transport for London and the Department for Transport called in KPMG to conduct a governance review of Crossrail Ltd and a separate financial/commercial review after it emerged that the Elizabeth Line would be nowhere near ready to open as planned on 9 December 2018 and the cost of completing the project could rise by billions.

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