Following a review of the scheme, which will provide London and the Southeast with a new rail service, the PAC today said project sponsors (the Department for Transport and Transport for London) were working well with the Crossrail Limited delivery organisation and the project was broadly on time and on budget.
‘The team has focused on the essentials of programme management, including defining a realistic scope, establishing a management team with the necessary skills and securing the required funding. Two years were spent on planning before construction began and roles and relationships were clearly established,’ said PAC member Richard Bacon.
‘The department should capture the lessons it has learned from the Crossrail programme and apply these to its other projects, most notably High Speed 2.’
But the committee said the economic benefits of Crossrail could have been better appraised. The DfT failed to appreciate how much it would benefit London businesses and has therefore had only mixed success in securing contributions from the private sector.
Risk also remained in delivering the programme by the 2019 deadline, particularly in managing the transition from construction to operation and supplying the trains.
‘So far, though, the signs are good,’ Bacon said.
